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The Mysterious Beacon Light 





















The Mysterious 
Beacon Light 

T^he Adventures of Four Boys 
in Fabrador 

By 

George Ethelbert Walsh 

Author of ‘‘The Mysterious Burglar,*’ “Allin 
Winfield,” etc. 


Illustrated by Arthur E. Becher 


Boston 

Little, Brown, and Company 
1904 


'SCi 


LIpW'irv nn»0ffESS 
TWn ftntiiw 

SEP t6 1904 

^Cooyl£ht Entry 
OLASrs Cl xxo. Na 

7 4- A 

COPY B 




Copyright, igo4. 

By Little, Brown, and Company. 

All rights reserved 
Published October, 1904 


THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A, 


/ 


List of Illustrations 


“Frank was plunged sideways, and rolled and 

tossed over on the deck ” .... Frontispiece 


/ 


“‘Now look out!’ shouted Louis. ‘We’re 
going ! ’” 

GO 


Page 138 


“ He plunged into the waves and reached out 
a hand to grasp the stern of the craft ” . 


u 


203 




“ They worked their way far out on the limb, 
until they hung almost directly over the 
beacon” “ 292 


“ The ship was veritably enclosed in a sheath yF 

of ice” “ 318 


I 



The 


Mysterious Beacon Light 

CHAPTER I 

W HERE are you going for your vaca- 
tion, Louis?” 

Frank Williston turned toward the only 
boy of the group who had not volunteered 
to tell all about his proposed plans for 
having a good time during the summer’s 
vacation. 

“ Yes, Louis, tell us about it,” imme- 
diately chimed in several of the youthful 
voices. “ Where are you going ? ” 

Louis Pendleton leaned over the top 
rail of the fence and gazed hard at the 
bright green of the park. Then, control- 
ling himself, he replied, with an attempt to 
seem indifferent : 

“ Oh, I ’m not going anywhere. I ’m 
not going to have any vacation ! ” 


2 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

There was a chorus of “ Ohs ! ” and 
Ahs ! ” which indicated the sceptical con- 
dition of the minds of the speakers. 

“ Since when did Louis become such a 
bookworm that he could n’t take a vaca- 
tion asked Frank, in a teasing voice. 

“ Turn him around, boys, so I can study 
him,” added Harold Bainbridge. “ He 
might do for a Barnum show. Has he lost 
his grip on life, or has he fallen in love ? ” 

Louis smiled desperately at these sallies, 
for, after all, they did not affect him nearly 
so much as the reality. He knew that his 
school companions were chaffing him and 
did not realize that he was in earnest — in 
dead earnest. 

“ Where will you conduct your summer 
studies, Louis asked Warren Pitt, touch- 
ing him lightly on the arm, and looking 
beseechingly up into his eyes. “ Please 
tell me of this famous summer school, for 
I may become a candidate for admission 
to it.” 

There was another round of laughter at 
Louis’s expense. 

“ I did n’t say that I should study,” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 3 

Louis answered with a little vehemence. 
“ I said I was n’t going to take any 
vacation.” 

“ And not going anywhere,” added a 
voice from the group. 

“ Well, I ’m not, except home. Yes, 
I ’ll take that back. I am going away, 
and to a good many places. I ’ll probably 
see more of life of a certain kind than any 
of you. I ’ll probably wander around and 
cover more ground — or water — than any 
of you — ” 

“ And yet he won’t go anywhere, and 
won’t take any vacation,” interrupted War- 
ren, with a smile. “ Louis, I fear you pre- 
varicate at times ! ” 

In spite of his position, and the depres- 
sion of his feelings, Louis Pendleton 
laughed at the expression in the eyes of 
the speaker. 

“ Oh, come now, you understand what I 
mean ! ” he said finally. “ I ’m going home, 
and then I ’m going to work for a living 
all summer.” 

He looked defiantly at the group of 
faces around him. Then, in a low voice. 


4 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

he continued : “ The fact is, father has lost 
heavily the past year, — two schooners 
and one sloop by storm and fire, — and I 
do not feel that I should loaf this summer. 
So I ’m going to ship before the mast 
with father, and sail north with him on the 
next cruise.” 

These words had a sobering effect on 
the boys. They realized by the speaker’s 
serious face that it was not a laughing 
matter with him. No one spoke, and 
Louis continued his story. 

“ Father, you know, has run ships in the 
coasting trade for years,” he went on 
slowly. “He is a good captain, but he 
has not been to sea in late years. Mother 
and I hoped he would never have to go 
again on a long cruise. But the loss of 
his schooners last winter and this spring 
has crippled him. Then, too, trade is dull, 
and he has decided that he cannot afford 
to run his last ship under another captain 
and crew. So I ’m to go with him as 
companion, cabin-boy, common sailor, and 
first mate. We’ll save just so much by 
doing the work ourselves.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 5 

In the pause which followed Louis 
dropped his eyes ; but Frank Williston said 
abruptly: “ But you haven’t told us yet 
where you are going.” 

“ No, and it would n’t make much dif- 
ference. But if you wish to know, it will 
be to Newfoundland, and from there to 
Labrador. Father has a cargo to take 
up there, and he expects to load down 
with a good return cargo. That is 
all.” 

“ That is all ? ” queried one of the boys. 
“ That is all ? Newfoundland — Labrador! 
What more could any boy want for one 
summer’s vacation ? Say, Louis, does n’t 
your father want another able seaman ? 
If so, recommend me.” 

“ And if he wants a second mate, I ’m a 
candidate,” interrupted Warren. 

“ And I ’ll go as cook or cabin-boy,” 
responded Harold. 

These words cheered Louis, so that he 
replied quickly : “ Oh, well, I ’ll engage all 
of you on the spot.” 

There was a general clapping of the 
hands. 


6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“Agreed! Agreed! We’ll hold you to 
your bargain.” 

“ But how about the wages } ” 

“ We don’t want any. Take us along 
for our grub and bed. We’ll work enough 
to pay for them.” 

“ What could you do on shipboard ? 
How many of you know a jib from a 
topsail, or a spanker from a bowsprit ? ” 

“ Hear him talk ! Think he ’d been 
brought up on the sea ! A regular salt ! 
Just repeat those words again ! ” 

“Huh! What’s the good of his putting 
on airs ? ” said Warren. “ I was once on a 
cat-boat, and we capsized, and nobody on 
board knew we had a centre-board until 
I discovered it sticking up in the air. 
What I don’t know about cat-boats and 
ships could n’t be held in Louis’s head.” 

“ Which reminds me,” added Frank, 
“ that I was brought up near the sea, and 
as a youngster I went out sailing in a 
skiff which had a spritsail. Since then 
I ’ve never found a fellow who knew what 
a spritsail was like. I asked Louis once, 
and he said that salt-water seamen did n’t 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 7 

condescend to such things. Now listen 
to him talking about going to sea on a 
ship as first mate and able seaman ! ” 

The boys joined in a chorus of groans, 
intended to indicate the supposed state 
of their minds at such incredulous tales. 
Louis listened to them in silence, and 
when they had recovered from their emo- 
tions, he said : 

“ I ’ll miss all of you many times, for the 
cruise will be a lonely one.” 

“ Miss us ? Indeed you won’t miss us 
if we go along! Every one of us will 
remind you of our presence every hour of 
the day. I thought you knew us better 
Louis. Have you forgotten the hazing 
we gave you when you first dared to ap- 
pear at old Sheffield, or the ducking we 
gave you under the town pump, two win- 
ters ago ? ” 

“ But you are not going with me,” Louis 
protested. “You ’ve already arranged your 
vacations, and — ” 

“ Did n’t you engage us ? ” demanded 
Frank, interrupting the speaker. “ Then 
you must stand by your bargain.” 


8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Louis laughed at this remark, but an- 
swered : “ All right ! I ’ll speak for my 
father, and engage you as able seamen and 
cabin-boys, if you can go. But I guess 
some of your fathers and mothers will, 
put down a foot.” 

“ Then we ’ll run away and enlist in the 
service.” 

“ No, that is n’t a part of the bargain,” 
Louis replied, shaking his head. “ Father 
would never take a runaway or stowaway 
to sea with him, if he could help it.” 

“ But he could n’t help it if you smuggled 
us aboard,” added one of the foremost of 
the boys, eagerly. 

“Yes, he would know it, for I would n’t 
smuggle you aboard. I ’d turn you over 
to the law officers in the harbor, and let 
them deal with you.” 

“Traitor! Miscreant! Hit him!” 

This and similar remarks drowned all 
efforts of Louis to speak further. There 
was a futile attempt to seize him ; but the 
little scrimmage ended in a general rough- 
and-tumble struggle, in which every one 
tried to throw everybody else. When they 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 9 

finally pulled themselves together, Frank 
Williston, as the spokesman of the crowd, 
said soberly : 

“ But, honest now, Louis, I ’m thinking 
of going with you, if your father would 
take me along. I ’d pay for my board, and 
do dirty work around deck with you. I ’d 
enjoy the trip more than anything else. 
I know I can get my father’s permission.” 

Louis turned toward the speaker, and 
there was a new eagerness in his voice as 
he said : “ Are you in earnest, Frank ? If 
you could only go, we ’d certainly have 
fine times together. I think it would be a 
summer of work and pleasure for both of 
us.” 

“ But include me in it too, Louis,” in- 
terrupted Warren. “ I mean it too, when 
I say that I want to sail with you on this 
cruise. My plans for the summer are not 
all made, and I can break them. Don’t 
turn me down. I ’ll go the same as Frank 
— pay my way and work too.” 

“ I should like to include all of you,” 
Louis answered, with a little break in his 
voice. “ What better fun could there be 


lo The Mysterious Beacon Light 

for me than to have you all with me on 
this long cruise ! But I 'm afraid that 
something will — ” 

“ Nonsense ! Don’t be afraid of any- 
thing! ” replied Harold. “ I ’m going any- 
how. I sha’n’t wait for a second invitation. 
You asked all of us, and I’ve accepted. 
I ’ll write home to-morrow and tell my 
folks that I ’m going.” 

“ And have the governor down on the 
next train to carry you away home,” said 
Warren, with a good-natured wink. 

No attention was paid to this sally, for 
the serious part of the meeting had been 
reached. What had been begun in jest 
promised to prove a far more serious matter 
than any had imagined. Vacation plans 
and anticipations were suddenly merged 
into one dream. Each boy imagined that 
he could already feel the cooling breezes 
of the ocean wafted to him off the coast of 
Labrador. There were visions of long 
days and moonlight nights on the north- 
ern sea. Possible adventures in storms or 
with whales and icebergs loomed up on 
their boyish horizon. When they finally 


The Mysterious Beacon Light ii 

walked away together, with arms locked 
into arms, they were deep in the mysteries 
of planning a cruise the like of which no 
four boys had ever attempted before. 

The most astonished of the group was 
Louis Pendleton. Even when they had 
made him understand the seriousness of 
their intentions, he could not believe but 
that something would come up to balk 
their plans. There was no harm in weav- 
ing possible adventures and pleasant ex- 
periences; but he felt that they would 
never be realized. Still he was pleased 
by their talk, and, when they separated for 
the night, he was in nearly as happy and 
jubilant a state of mind as they. His de- 
spondency had suddenly left him. He was 
once more the eager school-boy, search- 
ing for pleasure and sport between the 
hours of study, hoping for the best, and 
planning for something brighter and hap- 
pier for the future. 


CHAPTER II 


D own in New Bedford harbor Cap- 
tain John Pendleton, ship-owner and 
master, fitted the Northern Star — a three- 
masted schooner of fifty-tons burden — 
for a summer’s cruise north. The crew 
was partly engaged, but the fishing was 
good off the coast, and many able seamen 
who had shipped before on the Northern 
Star refused to leave their homes for a 
three months’ trip, preferring to follow the 
fishing vessels in their daily, or fortnightly, 
trips to the banks. Captain Pendleton 
had been brought up as a deep-sea mariner, 
and, before fortune had smiled on him, 
he had sailed his schooners to nearly all 
parts of the north Atlantic. He had little 
patience with “ stay-at-home sailors ” who 
thought more of their homes than of their 
profession. To him, a man’s work was the 
thing to which to sacrifice all else, and one 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 13 

who hesitated between duty and inclina- 
tion lost caste in his eyes. 

Consequently, when the sailors demurred, 
and hesitated, and backed out, he lost all 
patience with them — even losing his tem- 
per, it must be admitted. “ What are we 
coming to ? ” he growled fiercely to one of 
his old maritime friends. “ We don’t have 
deep-water sailors around here any more. 
They ’re nothing but landsmen, afraid to 
sail out of sight of land. It ’s a fine state 
of affairs, when the Northern Star can’t 
ship a decent crew to sail out of New 
Bedford.” 

“ You ’re right, cap’n,” answered his old 
crony, himself a decrepit and worn-out sea- 
captain. “ Times have changed. They 
ain’t no more decent sailors for ships and 
schooners. I ’m glad it did n’t come in 
my day. I think it would have nigh broke 
my heart.” 

It was while the captain was in this state 
of mind that Louis wrote his father asking 
for berths on the Northern Star for his 
three school friends. 

“ They are fine strong, healthy fellows,” 


14 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

his letter explained, “ and they will get the 
consent of their parents. They will go 
as passengers, but of course they will have 
to enlist as a part of the crew. They will 
work and — ” 

“ What tomfoolery! ” ejaculated the cap- 
tain, under his breath. 

“ I know they can help you a good deal 
if you should happen to be short-handed,” 
the letter continued ; “ they will be great 
company to me, and, I think, after the first 
few weeks, you will find their services 
valuable. They don’t know anything 
about ships or the sea, and they may get 
very seasick and homesick, too ; but they 
have grit, and for the sake of their class, 
and old Sheffield, they won’t give in.” 

“ Louis is sometimes very visionary,” 
blurted out the reader, in a less exasper- 
ated voice. “ But he ’s a practical sailor, 
and I ’m thankful I taught him how to 
manage a ship. I suppose, too, he will be 
very lonely on the cruise.” 

“ Of course, if you don’t want them,” 
he read on in the letter, “say so, and I 
will tell them ; but I almost committed 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 15 

myself to taking them before I consulted 
you. The fact was, it began all in a 
joke — ” 

“ A joke, was it! ” chuckled the captain. 
“ Well, I guess the joke will be on the 
boys then.” 

He turned to renew his reading. It 
was on the deck of the schooner that he 
stood. Around him were piled high the 
cordage and lumber with which the men 
were working to repair the schooner for 
her voyage. A man stumbled over the 
debris, apologetically removed his hat, 
and said stammeringly: 

“ Cap’n Pendleton, I — ” 

“Hello, Joe I That you Well, what 
do you want ? ” 

The man twisted his hat nervously in 
his hands. 

“ I Ve come to say, cap’n,” Joe con- 
tinued, “that — that ’Lidy Ann has got 
the measles, and how her ma feels so 
kinder out of sorts that she is lonesome 
without me. She don’t mind my going 
off to the fishin’ banks, and round here for 
a few days at a time, — fur a man ’s got to 


1 6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

live and work, — but she is greatly sot on 
my not going — ” 

“Come to the point, Joe,” interrupted 
Captain Pendleton. “You don’t want to 
go with me on this trip.” 

“Well, cap’n, seein’ I hadn’t signed 
with you yet, and only promised to go if 
everything was favorable, I think I ’ll have 
to ask you to let me off. A man must 
think of his wife first, and — ” 

“No, sir!” thundered Captain Pendle- 
ton, in a voice that made Joe jump back 
two feet. “ No, sir, a man must think 
first of his duty, and then of his wife 1 ” 

“ Of course ! Of course I ” assented 
frightened Joe, not knowing exactly what 
he was saying. “ I know it, cap’n ; but 
then, you see, there ’s ’Lidy Ann, and she ’s 
got the measles. You could n’t ask me 
to leave her 1 ” 

“Yes, I could, for she would be better 
off without you,” replied the captain, in 
the same fierce voice. “ You know well 
enough you won’t work half the time if 
you stay home, and you ’ll bother ’Lidy 
Ann and her mother half to death. If you 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 17 

go with me, you ’ll save up money, and 
they ’ll be glad to see you coming home. 
Now, sir, can you deny that?” 

“No, no, cap’n, I can’t. It ’s God’s truth 
— but — ” 

Captain Pendleton’s face changed. It 
had an expression of pity, rather than of 
anger, on it. Poor cringing Joe noted the 
change, and his own lighted up with hope. 

“ I won’t hold you to your agreement, 
Joe,” the captain said slowly. “You can 
stay home with ’Lidy Ann and her measles ; 
but, mark my word, you ’ll be sorry for it. 
I’ll make good wages for all. But I have 
engaged my crew. I ’ve found some good 
seamen who will come down from Boston 
next week to ship with me.” 

“ Boston seamen, eh ? ” ejaculated Joe, 
his curiosity showing in his staring eyes. 
“ What sort of men be they, cap’n ? ” 

“ Good sailors who are not afraid to get 
out of sight of land,” was the short answer. 

Captain Pendleton turned as if to ter- 
minate the interview, but Joe was not sat- 
isfied. Here was a piece of town gossip 
that he would have to sift to its founda- 


1 8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

tion. Besides, New Bedford men were 
jealous of imported sailors. Why did New 
Bedford captains go to Boston to hire 
sailors to sail on home ships ? 

“ I suppose they are not New Bedford 
folks,” Joe began timidly, remembering 
that many New Bedford boys had sailed 
to foreign ports from Boston. 

“ No, they are not New Bedford men,” 
replied Captain Pendleton. “ Not one of 
them — except my son — ever saw New 
Bedford.” 

“ Then they are from — from — ” 

A curious smile played around Captain 
Pendleton’s lips, as he answered : “ They 
are from school; but they’ll make better 
sailors than most of you fellers here in 
New Bedford.” 

Joe did not curl his lips in disdain, for 
he had misunderstood the purport of the 
reply. He answered gravely instead: “ I ’ve 
heard the naval schools do turn out good 
sailors. They are right smart as officers, 
and sometimes they make good seamen. 
There’s Squire Johnson’s boy, who went 
through the — some naval school, — and 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 19 

he ’s now captain of his own ship. They 
say he knows a lot about the sea.” 

“ Yes, but not more than you lazy fellows 
could if you ’d put a little ambition in your 
work. I ’d pit New Bedford boys against 
any in the world, on a ship, if they ’d only 
wake up; but they won’t” 

Joe sighed heavily. 

“ It ’s true, captain, but you can’t expect 
me, with ’Lidy Ann, and — ” 

“ No, no, Joe, not when she had the 
measles,” interrupted Captain Pendleton, 
with a laugh. “ But let me see, last year 
she had the mumps, when you wanted to 
go with Captain Smith, and the year before 
that her ma had the chicken-pox, and ’Lidy 
Ann had to go and take that from her. 
Say, Joe, when she ’s had all the diseases, 
let me know, and I ’ll come around and 
make you sign for a voyage. There can’t be 
more than a dozen more diseases left for poor 
’Lidy Ann. If she survives them, I think 
she’ll be able to get along without you.” 

“ I hope she won’t die with any of them,” 
sighed Joe, looking across the harbor in 
the direction of his humble home. 


20 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“No fear, Joe. She’s had too many to 
die of any one now. She ’ll outlive you 
by forty years.” 

“Think so, cap’n I dunno ! I dunno! 
She ’pears to be complaining a good deal 
nowadays.” 

Captain Pendleton placed a hand on his 
shoulder. “ The complaining kind never 
die, Joe,” he said kindly, “or at least, not 
until all the good ones are dead. Now go 
home and tell ’Lidy Ann you ’re going to 
stay behind and nurse her. The Northern 
Star has shipped a full crew, and she will 
sail next week.” 

“No unkind feelings toward me, I hope, 
cap’n .? ” 

“ None whatever, Joe. I couldn’t have 
any if I wanted to.” 

A few minutes later, Joe stumbled over 
the loose cordage and pieces of wood to 
the dock beyond. He mumbled to him- 
self, and looked eagerly around for some 
old friend to whom to impart his news. 
The first old inhabitant he met was duly 
informed that the Northern Star had 
shipped part of its crew from Boston. 


21 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

The men were engaged from a naval 
school, and they would come down the 
following week to sail. Joe was a com- 
paratively old man, but his imagination 
was fertile and vivid. He added a little 
to his tale — bit by bit — until, by the time 
he reached home, he had spread the story 
among his shipmates of New Bedford that 
the Northern Star was bound for the 
whaling regions off the coast of Labra- 
dor, where it was known that a rich prize 
of oil awaited her. Scientific men from 
the naval school had located the whales 
in their summer sporting grounds, and the 
sailors had been sent down to help Captain 
Pendleton in his search. 

So thoroughly accepted were these 
stories that, before night, a dozen New 
Bedford men had offered to sign articles 
with Captain Pendleton, and sail with him 
on the Northern Star. It was only after 
several of them had dropped a hint or 
two that Captain Pendleton realized the 
cause of this change of sentiment. 

“It’s all Joe’s work,” he chuckled to 
himself. “ He ’s been telling fairy tales, as 


22 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

usual. Well, I won’t say anything. But 
to think that Louis and his three young- 
sters should have caused such a sensation 
in New Bedford, and made the Norther^i 
Star so popular ! I ’ll tell them some time, 
but not now. I ’ll have to write Louis 
that they must dress up in sailor clothes 
before they strike New Bedford. We’ll 
carry out the farce until we get out to 


CHAPTER III 


A WEEK later, when four trim-looking 
but very youthful seamen dropped 
off the train at New Bedford, and wended 
their way toward the pretty home of Cap- 
tain Pendleton, no one would recognize 
in them the Sheffield school-boys who 
had arranged to take their vacation on a 
coasting schooner, bound for the coast 
of Labrador. They had purchased good, 
substantial seamen’s clothes in Boston, 
and, under the critical eye of Louis, they 
deported themselves as if the future sail- 
ing of all vessels depended upon their 
appearances. 

“ Look lively, now, to your steps,” cau- 
tioned Louis, with a suppressed grin. 
“ Don’t stare at people, and get a roll 
on you when you walk. It will be time 
enough to play the greenhorn when 
you ’re seasick on board the Northern 


24 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Star. You’ll all be laid up in your bunks 
before to-morrow night.” 

There were dozens of critical eyes watch- 
ing them. At the railway station and at 
the wharf, they were surveyed with mingled 
emotions of condemnation and praise. Old 
salts who had travelled in ships around 
the world, and hardened fishermen of the 
banks, watched them, and critically com- 
mented upon their appearance. Various 
were the remarks directed at them, and 
not always in an undertone. 

“ Shucks, they ain’t sailors,” muttered 
one old deep-water sailor. “ They ’re 
greenies from nowhere ! ” 

“ They ’re from the naval school,” re- 
plied old Joe, promptly, who had been 
somewhat dazzled by the new suits. 
“ They know lots about navigation and 
such things.” 

“ I ’ll bet they can’t reef a sail or haul 
a sheet,” answered the first speaker. 

“ Naw, but they look all right,” added 
a third speaker. “ They look as if they 
knew what they were about.” 

“They look like nice young boys — 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 25 

mere kids,” disgustedly replied the deep- 
water seaman, turning away from the 
group. 

“ Yes, they may be young,” commented 
another. “ But Cap’n Pendleton ought to 
know what he ’s about.” 

The Northern Star did not sail from 
New Bedford short-handed. Louis was a 
capable sailor, and, under his father’s direc- 
tions, he could act the part of first mate, 
with rare skill. He had been brought up 
on the sea from boyhood, and every sum- 
mer had found him studying navigation 
on one of his father’s ships. The three 
boys were merely counted as superfluous 
cargo, although they were shipped. as able 
seamen before the mast. The shipping 
laws did not permit the Northern Star to 
carry passengers, but any one could go on 
her who was willing to appear on the 
ship’s books as a part of the crew. 

There were eight other members of the 
crew, all good New Bedford men and cap- 
able of handling the Northern Star in any 
kind of weather. Counting the boys as 
able seamen, the schooner carried a large 


26 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

crew for her. In her last trip ten men had 
manned her with ease, and she had passed 
through some pretty rough weather. 

Although designated as able seamen, 
the four boys were given bunks in the 
captain’s cabin. Louis and Frank bunked 
on one side of the small cabin, and Harold 
and Warren on the opposite. This allot- 
ment created a little wonder among the 
rest of the crew, but they were not the 
kind to grumble. It gave them more 
room in their quarters, which had prom- 
ised to be rather crowded with twelve 
men. Besides the sailors had begun to 
suspect something before the Northern 
Star was well out of New Bedford harbor. 
The new sailors from Boston did not obey 
orders with alacrity, and when they did 
attempt it, they made bungling move- 
ments. They tried to coil the loose ropes 
on the deck, Louis showing them how; but 
every seaman who passed them laughed at 
the results. 

“Say, Johnny, did they teach you to 
coil a rope that way in Boston } ” asked 
one of the New Bedford men, as he 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 27 

watched Frank toiling painfully at his 
task. 

“ No, but I was trying the New Bedford 
way,” answered Frank, promptly. “ Louis 
said that ’s the way they do the thing 
down here.” 

The man laughed at this reply, and hur- 
ried back to his post without answering. 

A short time out, the Northern Star 
struck head winds and met the first of the 
rollers coming in from the open sea. The 
first heavy sea which struck her found 
Warren unprepared for it. He felt, rather 
than saw, the deck rise up before him, and, 
in his vain effort to catch himself before 
the ship rolled to the other side, he lost his 
balance completely, and rolled over on the 
deck. He heard a laugh from the stern, 
where the New Bedford men were grouped; 
but what made his face flush with mortifi- 
cation was to catch a glimpse of Louis 
and his father. There was a broad grin 
on the former’s face, and a hardly-sup- 
pressed smile on the captain’s. Warren 
picked himself up, and staggered, rather 
than walked, toward his companions. 


28 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“You have your sea legs early, Warren,” 
remarked Frank, who was clinging rather 
dubiously to the rail. “ But it ’s a little un- 
kind of you to try to show them off ahead 
of us, for you know it makes us envious.” 

Warren did not reply until he reached 
the rail. Then, recovering his equilib- 
rium, he said: “ Frank, I lost my knife out 
of my pocket when I slipped up on that 
orange peel. If you ’ll go and get it for 
me, it ’s yours to keep.” 

To this challenge Frank merely shrugged 
his shoulders and looked seaward. There 
was a strong breeze blowing from the 
ocean, and the white caps ahead looked 
cold and forbidding. He felt a queer sen- 
sation of uncertainty as to whether or not 
he had made a mistake in taking his vaca- 
tion in this way. The land, which was 
rapidly fading from view, was, after all, a 
place of great happiness and pleasure. It 
would be weeks before he would tread it 
again. 

“ The offer is open to you, Harold,” 
Warren continued. “ Frank is getting 
homesick — and may be seasick.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 29 

To resent this unfounded accusation, 
Frank turned his attention quickly from 
the sea and thoughts of home, and replied: 
“I don’t care for your old knife, Warren; 
but I ’ll never turn down a dare from you, 
and I won’t say I slipped up on any orange 
peel, if I do fall I ’ll be true to my name, 
and confess it was the rolling of the ship.” 

“ All right, Frank,” Warren replied 
sweetly. “ I ’ll be much obliged to you 
for getting the knife, and if you won’t 
keep it, I ’ll lend it to you once in a while. 
Now let us see you walk a straight line 
toward it.” 

Frank braced himself for the effort, 
caught his breath, and started away from 
his support. He took three steps forward 
withoiit difficulty, then stopped as the ship 
reared her head mountain-ward. When 
she began to descend in the trough of 
the sea, he stepped forward again three 
more steps. “ Ah, I catch on now ! ” he 
shouted gleefully. “You step forward only 
when the ship is going down the side of a 
wave, and stand still when she ’s rising. 
Why, it ’s dead easy ! ” 


30 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

This philosophy seemed to bear excel- 
lent fruit, for Frank made good progress 
without any mishap. In fact, he reached 
the place where Warren had fallen, and 
gloatingly looked down at the knife. The 
problem of picking it up suddenly appeared 
more complicated than that of walking the 
deck. Once he stooped forward a little, 
but the ship plunged upward, and the deck 
seemed determined to strike him in the 
head. He straightened himself, and made 
another effort, when the schooner heeled 
up its stern with a sudden lurch. But the 
tendency to sprawl forward on the deck 
was almost too much for Frank’s nerve, 
and he dared not lean down to disturb his 
equilibrium. 

“ Come, Frank, I ’m waiting for my 
knife ! ” shouted Warren. 

There was a ripple of laughter from 
several parts of the deck, and Frank, smart- 
ing under it, gathered himself together for 
one final effort. By this time the whole 
crew was intently watching him, enjoying 
the sport as much as the boys. Never be- 
fore on football or baseball field had he 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 31 

felt quite so helpless and chagrined. The 
waves were increasing in size and number, 
and, what Frank did not observe, there were 
several heavy cross seas sweeping in from 
the southwest. These reached the North- 
ern just as Frank was ready for his one 
desperate attempt to recover the knife. 

He leaned forward quickly and grasped 
the knife in his hand ; but, as he tried to 
straighten his body, a giant comber struck 
the schooner amidships, and swept clean 
across her. The result was that Frank 
was plunged sideways, and rolled and 
tossed over on the deck. He felt the water 
splashing in his eyes and mouth, wetting 
him through to the skin, and carrying him 
across the deck as if he had been a piece 
of cork. In vain he clutched at the slip- 
pery deck, gasping and coughing, and 
making the most ridiculous of gyrations. 
One moment his feet were in the air, and 
then his head, while his hands beat the 
empty air without intermission. 

For a few moments it seemed to the boy 
as if he had been plunged into the ocean, 
and he frantically tried to swim against 


j2 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the force of the water. But it was all of 
short duration. He struck against the rail 
on the opposite side of the schooner with 
a sudden bump which bruised nearly every 
bone in his body. 

He next felt a strong arm around him, 
and one of the New Bedford seamen said : 
“ Don’t go overboard, my boy, or we ’ll have 
to leave you behind for shark’s food.” 

Frank cleared his eyes and mouth of 
the salt water, and tried to stand upright^ 
clinging to his rescuer. The schooner 
was now passing out of the cross seas, and 
her roll was more evenly up and down. 
With the help of the sailor, he crossed the 
deck to his companions. 

“ Where ’s my knife ? ” asked Warren, 
writhing with merriment. 

“I — I — did n’t I get it ? ” stammered 
Frank, looking blankly at his empty hands. 

Chagrined at his misfortune, Frank could 
only shiver and stare gloomily toward the 
distant shore. A glimpse of old Shef- 
field’s green lawn just then would have 
been a welcome sight. The sea had fewer 
charms than he had ever imagined. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 33 

“ Never mind, Frank,” said Louis by his 
side. “ Here ’s the knife. I picked it up 
just as it was being washed overboard. 
You got it all right, but you forgot to hold 
it in the struggle with the water.” 

“ And he ’s our football captain ! ” ejacu- 
lated Harold, in mock surprise. “ He ’d 
fine us for dropping a football like that, 
just because a dozen fellows were climbing 
all over us.” 

Frank, the redoubtable football player, 
for the first time in his life looked with 
envy at the quiet strength and grace of 
Louis, who, without apparent effort, stood 
firmly on the rolling deck, his form keep- 
ing in rhythmic motion with the ship’s 
strange antics. Admiring him in silence, 
he forgot his embarrassment and mortifi- 
cation, and suddenly exclaimed : “ Louis, 
I ’d give a good deal for your pair of legs 
on this trip. How long will it take me to 
find my sea legs ? ” 

“ Anywhere from a week to several 
months,” was the reply. “ It all depends 
upon the man.” 


3 


CHAPTER IV 


F rank found the secret of walking 
a sloping deck in a storm in a short 
time, and Warren and Harold were not 
much behind him ; but their experiences 
were both varied and exciting before they 
acquired the knack of retaining their equi- 
librium under all circumstances. To make 
matters worse, seasickness overtook them 
in turn, and, for two days and nights, they 
were weak and helpless, so that they re- 
tired to their bunks in a condition of 
morbid unhappiness. The sea trip was 
suddenly bereft of all its charms. They 
wished they were back home, and they be- 
gan to blame Louis for all their troubles. 

“ I should be on my way to Colorado by 
this time if it had n’t been for Louis,” 
muttered Harold. 

“ And I should be in the mountains, 
fishing and canoeing,” said Warren, with 
equal anger. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 35 

“ Don’t talk of it,” said Frank, with set 
ceeth. “ I can’t bear to think of what I ’ve 
missed. I was going to take a trip through 
the Great Lakes, and here I am carted off 
to sea by Louis. It ’s an outrage ! ” 

“ He misrepresented the whole thing to 
us.” 

“ He deserves all that he will get, if we 
ever reach shore alive.” 

Louis’s face was suddenly thrust into the 
cabin, and he called out to the conspira- 
tors : “ Come, come, any more of that talk 
will land you in the brig. On the sea, 
mutiny is an offence that the captain and 
his officers can put down with any kind 
of punishment” 

“ Oh, you can do anything with me ! ” 
groaned P'rank. “ I ’m sick of the whole 
thing and the world too.” 

Yet within forty-eight hours a new 
interest took possession of the seasick 
youngsters, and they would have blushed 
with shame at their words of despair. One 
by one, they raised their heads from their 
bunks, and, with dull eyes, peered through 
the deadlights of the cabin. 


36 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ I say, Frank, the sun is shining,” re- 
marked Warren, suddenly, as if the fact 
had just dawned upon him that there was 
ever a sunny day on the ocean. 

The remark did not seem at all trite 
to Frank, for he added another equally 
inane statement. Then Harold reflected, 
as he supported his head with his hands : 

“ I think I ’ll get up ; a breath of fresh 
air will make me feel better.” 

“ I ’m anxious to get up on deck, too,” 
Frank replied. “ But I ’m terribly weak, 
and my stomach is so empty and hollow.” 

“ Mine feels like a balloon when it ’s 
flattened out,” Warren said. 

Three gaunt, pale figures dressed them- 
selves in the cabin, resting often ; but 
finally they were ready to go on deck. 
They stood in a bunch at the foot of the 
companion-way ; a delightful whiff of salt 
air came down to them, but they hesitated. 

“You go first, Frank,” Warren said. 

But Frank had forgotten something in 
the cabin, and rushed back for it. “Go 
ahead! ” he exclaimed. “ I ’ll come as soon 
as I get — ” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 37 

The rest of the sentence was smothered 
in the distance. Harold turned up his nose 
and sniffed the air. “ Afraid of facing the 
music,” he said scornfully. “Well, I ’ll go 
first.” 

Frank returned just in time to lose his 
position on the stairway, but not too late 
to hear the remark. 

“ I ’ll go first ! ” he shouted, a little 
ashamed of his actions. 

But Harold had already stepped on 
deck, and Warren was close behind him. 
The ship was sailing calmly over a peace- 
ful sea, with no land in sight, and with no 
clouds floating in the clear sky overhead. 
There was hardly a perceptible roll to the 
sea, and the seabirds were skimming over 
its surface in great flocks. Here and there 
the bright flash of a fish leaping from the 
water, or the roll of a porpoise as it rose 
from the top of a wave, reflected the sun’s 
rays like a burnished mirror. A gentle 
breeze was filling the sails, and, above their 
heads, the topsails were blowing out like 
balloons tugging at their anchor ropes 
ready for an ascension. The three boys 


38 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

stood a moment, charmed by the quiet, 
peaceful scene, and scarcely conscious of 
the presence of any one else on the ship. 

Then a sudden, sharp exclamation 
echoed back of them. “ Hello there, 
mates ! How goes the hospital ? ” 

Louis appeared from behind a cloud of 
canvas that had been hauled on deck 
for repairing. Back of him stood several 
of the sailors, grinning behind upraised 
hands, and trying hard not to appear too 
interested in the scene. 

“ Well, I ’m glad to see you Ve come to 
life again, and also to your senses,” Louis 
continued, approaching them. “ Why, 
half an hour ago you were all blubbering 
for home and nursing-bottle. Now you 
look like something again; but you are 
thin, very thin. Come down with me, 
and I ’ll get the cook to fill you up. You 
need it badly.” 

He took Frank by the arm ; but all 
three hung back. “We want the fresh 
air, and none of your dishwater soup,” 
said Frank, defiantly, “ Let go, Louis, 
or I shall strike you.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 39 

“ Still insubordinate ? Well, I ’ll report 
the matter to the captain. He excused 
you before, but this time I ’m not so sure. 
He ’s in a very bad humor to-day. The 
cook served him up coffee, this morning, 
made of ground beans, and it disturbed 
his digestion. But here he comes him- 
self ! Let him speak for himself! Salute I ” 

Captain Pendleton surveyed the three 
youngsters with a merry twinkle in his 
eyes. Then he said in a fatherly voice : 

“ Feel better, boys ? Well, you ’ll pull 
through all right after this. The first sea- 
sickness rather takes the starch out of a 
landsman. It ’s a good thing you were 
not regular paid sailors, or you ’d been 
hauled up long before this to help trim 
sheets.” 

He walked on to where the sailors were 
mending the old sail, but there followed 
in his wake a little chuckle which brought 
the blush of mortification to the faces of 
the boys. Louis, having had his fun out 
of the situation, now spoke suddenly in a 
different voice, and cheered them by his 
manner and words. 


40 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Come now, this has been your initia- 
tion,” he said. “You fellows had the gag 
on me when you hazed me at Sheffield, 
and half drowned me under the town 
pump. Now I ve got even with you. 
You ’ll find it easier after this. You 
need n’t put on the airs of sailors any 
more, for the men know all about it. 
They will give you a chance to pick up 
a few nautical ways and words that you 
are sorely in need of. I ’ll introduce you 
to some of the men.” 

Not unwillingly they followed him to a 
hard-handed old seaman whom Louis in- 
troduced in this way : “ This is Mr. Bar- 
rows, our second mate, commonly called 
‘ Mate Ned.’ Where he has n’t sailed in 
these northern waters is n’t worth seeing. 
Some night he ’ll tell you of his experi- 
ences, and you won’t sleep for a week after 
listening to him.” 

Then, turning away from the boys, he 
continued, addressing Mate Ned : “ These 
are the three runaways from Sheffield 
School, masquerading as able seamen 
from old Joe’s unnamed naval school. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 41 

They ’re pretty green yet, but we hope to 
make something of them before we get 
home. Give them plenty of hard work, 
when they need it, and trice them up by 
the thumbs if they don’t obey orders.” 

Without waiting for more than a per- 
functory exchange of words, Louis hurried 
them past the second mate, and drew them 
up, military-fashion, before another short, 
thick-set, grizzled seaman. 

“ Here we are, bos’n,” he exclaimed, 
“ I have them in tow, the whole crew of 
’em, ringleader and all. They ’re all guilty 
of sailing under false colors. Not one of 
’em knows a sail from a bedquilt. They 
are n’t exactly stowaways, but something 
worse. They expect to draw pay, when 
they can’t even scrub a deck decently. 
What should the punishment be ? ” 

The bos’n laughed, and extended a 
cordial hand to the boys. 

“ Glad to see you on deck again,” he 
said. “ You ’ll feel better after this. The 
air is very bracing to-day, and you ’ll be 
as hungry as bears before night.” 

“ Seems to me you are interfering with 


42 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the discipline of this ship,” Louis said 
stiffly. “ If I report you to the captain, 
he’ll—” 

The bos’ll smiled, and asked, in an 
equally dramatic voice : 

“ Who ’s offlcer of the deck, sir ? ” 

“Ay, ay, that’s it! — who is offlcer of 
the deck ? ” 

“ I am I ” was the quick response of the 
bos’n. 

Louis made a profound bow, and replied: 

“ I withdraw my remarks, bos’n, and 
humbly beg to introduce my three friends 
from Boston — Frank, Warren, and Harold. 
The rest does n’t amount to much, but 
you ’ll learn it soon enough from them. 
They are capable of more wickedness to 
the square inch than any trio I know of. 
I warn you in time, so that if anything 
happens to you, it cannot be laid up against 
me.” 

Thus Louis introduced the three to 
their shipmates, selecting the officers and 
seamen in turn, according to their rank or 
service on his father’s ships. They were 
all, in reality, old New Bedford men who 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 43 

had sailed many years under Captain Pen- 
dleton or some of his officers. They were 
more like a family or club of friends than 
an ordinary crew of mixed seamen. They 
were fully acquainted with the captain’s 
peculiarities, and with Louis’s methods of 
fun-making. To them, the whole farce 
was entertaining and amusing. They un- 
derstood the whole story, even to old Joe’s 
exaggerated accounts of Captain Pendle- 
ton’s shipping naval cadets to man his 
ship. 


CHAPTER V 



HE sail northward to the coast of 


JL Newfoundland was unbroken by any 
adventure to the boys ; but the days and 
evenings were filled with experiences that 
were not soon to be forgotten. The 
weather was almost ideal, and, after their 
period of seasickness, the three amateur 
sailors found their pleasures increasing al- 
most in direct proportion to their ignorance 
of all things nautical. The seamen found 
plenty of time hanging on their hands in 
which to instruct the boys in the mysteries 
of handling the sails, and, within a fortnight, 
Frank, Harold, and Warren were taking 
turns at the wheel. The experience was 
all the more interesting, since all three boys 
had been reared in inland cities where 
knowledge of the sea was chiefly second- 
hand. 

“At this rate we shall soon be able to 
draw full pay of an able seaman,” said 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 45 

Frank one day, as they were nearing the 
coast of Newfoundland. 

Louis, standing nearby, smiled and said : 

“You remember when I first went on 
your scrub football team, Frank? Well, 
after a week’s practice, I thought I knew 
it all. Remember my attempting to tell 
you how to tackle in better style than you 
were training the boys ? ” 

Frank looked steadily toward the fore- 
mast, watching the sail fluttering against 
the background of fleecy clouds. 

“ Don’t see what that has to do with 
sailing a ship,” he replied, without remov- 
ing his eyes from the sail. 

“ No, but you may some day.” 

This prediction came true sooner than 
any of the boys expected. The Northern 
Star ran into its first summer storm after 
they had sighted Newfoundland heights, 
with its rocky islands and promontories 
jutting far out into the sea. They had 
been sailing quietly and leisurely along, 
with the lead, at every half mile, announc- 
ing shallower water. The few fleecy clouds 
in the heavens seemed to portend no dis- 


46 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

aster; but suddenly the water ahead was 
rippled into little vibrating white caps 
which moved rapidly toward the ship. 
Louis was standing with his back toward 
the shore, and his three companions were 
engaged in discussing some point about 
their future plans. A puff of wind sud- 
denly struck the schooner with such vio- 
lence that she heeled far over on her side, 
and the sails and rigging creaked under 
the strain. In an instant there was the 
greatest commotion on the deck. 

Captain Pendleton was in his cabin, and 
Louis and the second mate had all they 
could do to hold the schooner up into the 
wind. With sharp orders, they made the 
sailors shorten sail. The waves swept 
the deck and wet everything down. Two 
able seamen brushed Frank aside and 
caught the wheel from his hands. In fact, 
the amateur sailors realized the difference 
then between a fair weather sailor and the 
genuine article. The wind howled and 
screamed through the rigging, blowing a 
gale, dashing the spray high above their 
heads, and wetting every one to the skin. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 47 

sending an icy chill down their backs. 
So violent was the small hurricane that 
three more frightened boys never before 
stood on the deck of a ship. They ex- 
pected every moment to see the schooner 
go over on her beams’ ends and founder in 
the great waves which rose up, as if by 
magic, to bewilder it. The sharp reports 
made by the creaking and twanging of the 
rigging were like pistol-shots, and they 
helped to add to the fear and helplessness 
of the boys. 

Once Captain Pendleton crossed the 
deck close to them, and shouted in his 
stentorian voice : “ Go below, or you ’ll 
be blown overboard ! ” 

But he might as well have ordered them 
to swim ashore. They were clinging to 
the rail of the schooner for dear life. Each 
succeeding wave threatened to break their 
hold and sweep them into the sea. They 
would gladly have retired below decks; but 
how were they to reach the companion- 
way.'^ Dim remembrances of their early 
attempt to walk the throbbing, rolling 
deck of the schooner occurred to them, 


48 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

and Frank, in particular, wondered if all 
his training and experience of the past 
fortnight counted for nothing. He could 
not move from his position without en- 
dangering his life. 

Suddenly out of the blinding roar some- 
thing seemed to snap and crash close to 
them, and they could hear Louis shouting: 

“ Lash yourself to the rail ! Quick, for 
here comes the worst of it ! ” 

The rope was wound around their bodies 
and tied to the stout rail of the schooner. 
With trembling bodies, the boys waited for 
the worst. It hardly seemed possible that 
anything more terrifying could happen 
without sending them to the bottom of 
the sea. 

But while they waited, they could see 
the schooner twist her head up into the 
wind, and while she stood there, trem- 
bling and shivering like a great fright- 
ened bird, a demoniacal howl burst from 
the sky, and enveloped them in its awful 
noise. 

The boys gasped for breath as a great 
wave completely covered them with its 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 49 

foam. Like half-drowned rats, they shook 
their heads and bodies, to cast off the 
water which had drenched them ; but 
another wave followed so closely upon 
the first that they could not catch their 
breath. Great quantities of salt water 
were swallowed, and still the giant waves 
came tearing over the sides of the ship. 
They might have been struggling in the 
sea itself, so far as their experiences were 
concerned, and, for a long time, not one of 
the boys could realize that he was on the 
deck of a ship that was successfully with- 
standing the shocks of wind and waves, 
and slowly but surely riding out the storm 
in safety. 

More dead than alive, they finally fell 
on the deck, clutching at each other and 
the rail for support. They made no noise, 
no outcry, for the sea was so great that 
they had no opportunity to raise their 
voices. Meanwhile, it had grown dark, as 
if night had suddenly fallen. Vivid flashes 
of lightning lit up the dimness occasion- 
ally, and the roll of the thunder echoed 
like the distant roar of artillery. 

4 


50 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

From out of this darkness and babel of 
sounds, the boys could occasionally hear 
the voice of the captain, or of one of his 
officers, giving orders to the men. By 
the glare of the lightning flashes, they 
caught glimpses of the sailors running 
up the rigging, or toiling in mid-air with 
the sails. To their minds, it seemed as 
if no human being could live in the rig- 
ging amid such a chaos of sounds and 
crashes ; but the impression brought relief 
to their minds. The orders of the officers, 
and the sight of the seamen obeying them, 
brought home to their minds an acute 
sense of relief. So long as the ship was 
in the hands of Captain Pendleton and 
his crew, there was a chance left for them ; 
they were not yet lost. 

Dimly and vaguely this idea was im- 
pressed upon their minds, when suddenly, 
out of the darkness, a form loomed up 
near them, and a hand was stretched out 
to touch them. The magnifying effect 
of the peculiar light made the form seem 
unearthly and gigantic in size. For a 
moment the three huddled forms dreaded 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 51 

to speak, fearing lest it was some phantom, 
some uncanny spook of the sea. 

But their fears were abated when Louis 
spoke. The giant statue seemed to shrivel 
to its normal size, and they saw only the 
welcome face of their school companion. 

“ Are you all right, Frank — Warren — 
Harold gasped Louis, struggling with 
the names in the wind. “ Are you all here, 
lashed to the rail ? That ’s good ! It will 
blow over in a few minutes.” 

“ What is it ? ” gasped Harold. “ Are 
we wrecked ? ” 

“ No, we are all right, except for a few 
torn sails. It ’s one of these summer 
storms that strike ships up here, when off 
the coast. They don’t last long, and they 
are rarely disastrous.” 

“ I should think,” stammered Warren, 
“ that this was an awful one.” 

“ Oh, no, I ’ve seen worse. You ’ll get 
used to them in time.” 

“ I hope I ’ll never get into another one,” 
said Frank. “ I know I ’d never get used 
to them.” 

“ I thought so too, when I met my first 


52 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

one,’^ Louis replied, bracing himself to 
receive a big wave that broke over the 
deck. 

Louis started to move away again, but 
a detaining hand touched his arm. “ Don’t 
leave us,” said the appealing voice of War- 
ren. “We want you here. You sort of 
make us — give us courage.” 

“ All right ! I ’ll stay until the sun 
comes out again. I know how you feel. 
A fellow does seem pretty helpless in the 
face of such a sea and wind. Old seamen 
never forget their first experience in a 
storm, and you need n’t think your feelings 
are different from others. It ’s not cow- 
ardice, but simply a sense of utter helpless- 
ness. A sailor soon learns the trick of 
taking advantage of every wave and puff 
of wind, and, until then, he feels as weak 
and frightened as you do.” 

While he was speaking, the wind ap- 
peared to subside, and the waves grow less 
violent. Louis noticed it, and, pointing 
upward, exclaimed : “ See, there is the 
break in the storm. We ’ll be sailing on 
a sunny sea inside of half an hour.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 53 

The clouds were parting and changing 
rapidly. The dark, cumulous mass of 
whirling vapor was passing away across 
the eastern horizon, and a soft shaded yel- 
low light followed in its wake. The wind 
dropped to an ordinary gale. Then, where 
the sun was struggling to break through 
the clouds, a luminous path of light fell 
aslant the ocean. The curious appearance 
of the sky and sea attracted all eyes, and 
they stared with wonder at the sight. 

Then, before any one could speak, a 
rift of blue sky appeared in the west. 
Driven before the wind, the clouds parted 
rapidly, and the blue patch widened as if 
by magic. To complete the wonderful 
change, the sun burst from its prison of 
overhanging vapor, and spread a glorious 
light over the tossing sea of foam. It made 
the wet sails and spars glisten as if coated 
with ice. The deck of the schooner was 
like a mass of burnished metal, reflecting 
the rays in prismatic hues. 

So entrancing was the view, after the 
enshrouding darkness of the storm, that 
no one could frame adequate expressions. 


54 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

The exclamations of astonishment were 
littered without articulate meaning. The 
schooner was still rolling and tossing on 
the waves, and she looked limp and be- 
draggled. Some of her topsails were 
loose and limp, and others were entirely 
missing. The shrouds were already filled 
with sailors climbing to the crosstrees 
to put the injured rigging in something 
like working order. Louis was needed 
for this work, and he said: 

“ Now we are out of it, and I ’ll leave 
you. There ’s plenty of work to do. 
You’ll have a chance to learn this part 
of a sailor’s duty now.” 

Frank rose from his position and 
stretched his aching limbs. “ I think I ’ve 
learned a good deal already,” he said. 
Then, in a confidential voice, he added : 

“ I guess, Louis, I understand now the 
connection between your giving advice to 
the football team and my sailing this ship. 
I ’ve had my eyes opened.” 

Louis said nothing as he hurried away, 
but his smile meant much. 


CHAPTER VI 


T he Northern Star touched at St. 

John’s a few days later, but there 
was little shore leave, for Captain Pendle- 
ton was anxious to reach Labrador in 
time to discharge his cargo and load up 
with one of whale oil and sealskins, before 
the summer began to wane. In the north- 
ern latitude, which they soon entered after 
rounding Cape Race, the temperature 
showed a perceptible change. The nights 
in particular were cool, and the days 
pleasant and bracing. Day after day the 
schooner pointed due north, and then, on 
a certain morning, the course was laid 
northeast, until Cape Race was passed. 

This storm centre was given a wide 
berth. For days and nights the schooner 
kept far beyond the sight of land. Once 
they caught a glimpse of the Cape Race 
light, flashing in the distance, but it did 
not last long. Even that was too close 


56 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

to the dangerous shoals and rocky head- 
lands to suit Captain Pendleton. 

“ We are safer well out from the point,” 
Louis explained. “The tides and currents 
are strong off the cape, and a sea of cross- 
currents could overwhelm a ship of this 
size, if a storm should come up. So we 
keep away, and, if the weather gets heavy, 
we will go still farther out to sea.” 

Beyond Cape Race, the course was once 
more shifted. This time it was laid almost 
north by west, or north-northwest, as the 
compass indicated. 

“ Now we ’ll strike cool currents and 
winds,” Captain Pendleton explained to 
the boys, one afternoon, as they stood on 
the forward deck. “We are directly in the 
line of the icebergs, floating down from the 
north.” 

“ Shall we see one ? ” eagerly asked 
Warren. 

“Yes, many of them,” the captain an- 
swered with a smile. 

“ And probably feel one, too, if we are 
not careful,” volunteered Louis. “We’ll 
have to look out for them day and night.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 57 

“Yes, an extra watch is kept from now 
on,” his father added. “ In fact, only last 
night, Ned told me that he saw suspicious 
signs of a berg in the distance. See those 
cakes of ice floating around the ship now.^ 
Well, they were broken from some berg as 
it toppled over in the water.” 

“ I should like to see a real iceberg,” 
Frank ventured to remark. “ I ’ve read 
enough about them.” 

“ Sometimes they are very troublesome 
and expensive things to meet on the sea,” 
Louis said, as his father walked away. 
“ It was an iceberg that caused father to 
take this trip.” 

“How was that.?” asked several voices 
in unison. 

“ Why, an iceberg lost him his biggest 
schooner, the Nancy Brown, last summer 
up in these latitudes, and he felt so poor 
that he had to come up himself this 
season to run his own ship. I think he 
has a notion that he ’ll get some word of 
the Nancy s whereabouts. She has never 
been reported since the day the sailors 
deserted her. If she did n’t go straight 


58 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

to the bottom of the sea, — and wooden 
ships don’t very often sink, — she must be 
still floating around somewhere. It seems 
as if some ship would have reported her 
before this, if she is a derelict. There is 
a possibility that some fishermen picked 
her up, and are using her along the coast. 
At any rate, father is curious to know what 
has become of her. He has never said as 
much, but I think he is going to hurry up in 
loading, and then cruise up and down the 
coast to see if he can get any tidings of her. 
It is just possible that she drifted into some 
of these coves or bays, and stranded there. 
This coast is a wild and uninhabited place, 
and a ship might lie stranded here for years 
before anybody would find her.” 

“ Tell us how the iceberg destroyed 
her,” Warren said, as Louis stopped in 
his narrative. 

“ It was simple enough, but very excit- 
ing for those on board,” Louis continued. 
“She was returning home with a good 
cargo of oil, sealskins, and dried fish, 
when she ran into an iceberg. It was 
on a chilly, foggy night, not far off the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 59 

harbor of Bain. She was headed nearly 
southeast, making good time in spite of 
fog and adverse tides. There was a double 
lookout watching for icebergs. 

“ It was early in the evening when the 
fog settled down denser than ever, and an 
unusually cold wave seemed to sweep 
across the bow of the ship. The watch- 
men at first did not pay much attention 
to it, but simply buttoned up their coats 
and paced the deck. Without warning, 
then, the iceberg loomed up out of the 
darkness, directly ahead. It was like an 
immense ghost. At first the sailors could 
only gasp in wonderment. The great icy 
mass towered over them, with big pin- 
nacles of white hanging down even above 
the tops of the masts. The men had 
barely time to utter a cry of warning, 
when the collision occurred. 

“ The Nancy was a fast sailer, and she 
was moving along at ten knots an hour 
when she struck. She poked her nose 
straight into a crevice in the berg, so far 
that it would have taken a dozen tugs to 
pull it out again. 


6o The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“'At first there was nothing but a dull 
crunching noise made by the Nancy s bow 
forcing itself into the crevice. Then, after 
the first crash and awful stillness which 
followed, there was a roar like an express 
train rolling down an embankment. The 
great mass of broken ice came toppling 
over on the deck, crushing the sails, rig- 
ging, and masts into splinters, killing four 
men outright, and injuring several others. 
The deck was piled twenty feet high with 
broken ice, and the schooner would have 
been sunk at once by the load, had she not 
been wedged in her narrow hole in the 
berg. 

“ For some time the seamen were too 
frightened to do anything. Most of those 
on deck were killed or injured, but those 
below deck were shut in by the masses of 
ice. They could not get out to help the few 
survivors above. It was a terrible scene 
that night. The sailors worked hard to 
clear up the decks and release those im- 
prisoned below. Finally they hauled away 
enough ice from the companion-way so 
that the men could crawl out. Then the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 6i 

whole crew set to work to help the injured. 
They were not dangerously hurt, but they 
were carried below and given what medi- 
cal assistance the captain could think of. 

“ All that night they worked to clear 
away the ice from the decks, but it was 
impossible to make much headway. They 
were so close to the berg that the air was 
as cold and chilly as on a winter’s day, and 
the small pieces of ice, washed by the sea, 
actually froze together and formed one 
solid mass over the decks. 

“No crew ever watched more anxiously 
for dawn than did that of the unfortunate 
Nancy. When the sun did come up, it 
could hardly reach them on account of the 
ice. They were then completely hemmed 
in by the berg, except on the side where 
the schooner had struck. The sun could 
not melt the ice on the ship, and the men 
seemed fated to a terrible death. 

“ It was late in the summer then, and, 
up here, winter begins early. The danger 
was that the ship could not be extricated 
in time to sail south, before the waters 
froze up around them. In that case, they 


62 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

would not only be imprisoned on the ship, 
but in the ice itself, and never come forth 
to tell their story. They drifted around 
for days and nights, working hard to move 
the Nancy, or cut her free from the berg. 
But it was a hopeless task. Nothing but 
the warm sun could ever release them, and 
this became less promising every day. 
The weather was rapidly changing, and 
the chill in the night air indicated that 
winter was not far off. 

“ It was then that the crew became fright- 
ened, and refused to stay longer by the 
ship. The captain pleaded with them, but 
they were afraid of drifting around with the 
iceberg all winter. So finally they rigged 
up one of the long boats that had not been 
totally destroyed, and prepared for escape. 
One day they pulled out from the berg, and 
rowed around it. The captain even landed 
on the berg, and, climbing to a high part 
of it, surveyed the sea through his glass. 

“ In the distance he could see land. It 
was the coast of Labrador, with it^ rocky 
headlands and great masses of ice-covered 
peaks. When he saw this, he was satisfied 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 63 

that the men could row to the shore, and 
return to the iceberg with assistance. He 
ordered the men to row hard for the near- 
est shore, and before night they reached 
it. 

“ It was a lonel}^ part of the coast, but, 
by rowing along the shore for twenty 
miles, the following morning they reached 
a small fishing village. There they told 
their story, and the fishermen agreed to re- 
turn to the iceberg and help them in the 
attempt to cut the Nancy out of her queer 
prison. Five fishing smacks and sloops left 
for the berg. It was not in sight, but the 
captain of the Nancy had taken the lati- 
tude and longitude, so that, by making al- 
lowances for tide and wind, he could locate 
it. But all that day and the next, the fish- 
ing fleet sailed around where the iceberg 
should have been, without catching a sight 
of it. 

“The search was kept up for a week. 
The fleet of ships and smacks separated, 
and scoured the whole coast for fifty 
miles in all directions, but no signs of the 
iceberg or imprisoned ship could be 


64 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

found. The captain and his men were 
sorely puzzled. The whole mystery of its 
disappearance was beyond them. The 
fishermen in time became sceptical, and 
began to doubt their stories. Then some 
began to tell stories of icebergs toppling 
over and sinking with imprisoned ships ; 
but these tales had little real basis of truth 
about them. An iceberg will float as long 
as there is anything left to it, and so also 
will a wooden ship. Yet what had become 
of the two ? ” 

Louis stopped and looked toward the 
distant horizon. 

“ Well, what had become of them ? ” 
demanded the boys, breathlessly. 

“ I don’t know, nor anybody else,” was 
the quiet reply. “ It s one of the mys- 
teries of the sea, which no man can ex- 
plain.” 


CHAPTER VII 


W E shall strike Labrador in a few 
days,” announced Captain Pendle- 
ton one day, as he came out of his cabin 
and surveyed the horizon. “ If everything 
goes well, we shall make a quick trip, and 
we ’ll have some time to hunt around 
for — ” 

He stopped in evident confusion ; but 
Louis, standing nearby, said : “ Go on, 
father. We shall go hunting for the lost 
Nancy Brown, I ’ve told them the story.” 

At first the captain cast a look of 
reproach at his son, but a moment later he 
smiled, and replied : 

“Yes, we’ll go hunting for the Nancy, 
Somehow I can’t believe she ’s actually lost. 
That iceberg must turn up somewhere.” 

“ How about salvage on her } ” asked 
Frank. “ The man who first discovers her 
should get salvage money, shouldn’t he, 
captain ? ” 


5 


66 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“Yes, he will get good salvage,” was 
the prompt reply. “ I ’ll see to that. The 
Nancy was a favorite of mine, and I ’d like 
to tow her back to New Bedford with fly- 
ing colors again.” 

“Wrecked or whole, the salvage is 
paid ? ” asked Warren. 

Captain Pendleton nodded his head. 
“Yes, wrecked or whole. I’ll pay the dis- 
coverer a good reward. If she has n’t been 
boarded by strangers, I ’ll find enough in 
her cargo to repay me, even if she is a 
water-logged derelict.” 

“ It seems to me,” remarked Harold, 
“that this question of salvage all depends 
upon a pair of powerful sea glasses. The 
one who can see the farthest is bound to 
discover the Nancy and her iceberg first. 
Now then, captain, if you ’ll let me have 
your glasses, I ’ll watch the horizon all the 
time.” 

“ Send him up forward as watch,” said 
Louis. “ Lash him to the masthead, and 
let him stay there until he finds the 
Nancy r 

“ We ’ll take turns watching, and then 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 67 

divide the salvage money among us,” Frank 
said. “ That ’s the fairest way.” 

Captain Pendleton smiled. “ It seems 
to me that you have all decided that 
you ’ll find the Nancy without much 
trouble.” 

“We shall find her,” said Frank. “I 
know we shall. That’s what we came up 
here to do. I know now our mission.” 

“Well, boys, if confidence counts for 
anything, you will be successful ; but let 
me warn you, the sea is wide, and the most 
uncertain and treacherous thing in the 
world. There are many disappointments 
on it, and many lucky finds. A man never 
knows when he will grasp his prize, or 
when his life’s work will be taken from 
him. I trust you will find the prize rather 
than the disappointment.” 

While he talked Warren’s eyes had been 
slowly roving about the distant horizon, 
and then they came to a sudden stop at a 
point which might have been in the direc- 
tion of the coast. Without removing his 
eyes from the water, he asked, extending 
a hand: 


68 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Will you lend me your glasses a 
moment, Captain Pendleton ? ” 

Instantly all eyes were turned on Warren. 

“ Found the Nancy already, Warren } ” 
chaffed Frank. 

“ No, he sees a porpoise rolling, or a 
whale spouting,” added Harold. 

Nevertheless, when Warren clapped the 
sea glasses to his eyes, and gazed long and 
attentively toward the horizon, the two 
boys by his side showed nervous eager- 
ness in watching him. 

“What is it, Warren Louis asked. 
“ I see something with my naked eye, but 
I can’t make it out.” 

Warren gasped, and suddenly exclaimed, 
handing the glasses to Louis : “ I think it 
is the Nancy, or some wrecked ship. 
Look ! ” 

Louis placed the glasses quickly to his 
eyes, while all the others crowded eagerly 
around him, including Captain Pendleton, 
who had become strangely interested in 
the matter. It seemed an age before 
Louis dropped the glasses, and, handing 
them to his father, said : 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 69 

“What do you make of it, father? I 
think it ’s an iceberg, but it does have a 
little peculiar appearance.” 

This conclusion added fuel to the fire, 
and every boy caught his breath with a 
little gasp of wonder. Warren felt the 
blood surge to his head, and he shaded 
his eyes as he tried to strain them in 
one long, intent look. Had he really dis- 
covered the Nancy Brown ? 

“Yes, it is an iceberg,” replied Captain 
Pendleton, a few moments later, but with- 
out further comment. The group of eager 
watchers were kept waiting full five min- 
utes before the captain spoke again. 

“You are right, Louis, it does have a 
peculiar appearance,” he added slowly, 
and then handed the glasses back to his 
son. 

In a loud voice he called to the man 
at the wheel to change the course of the 
schooner, and in a few moments the bow 
veered around, until she was pointing 
toward the distant speck on the horizon. 
To the naked eye the object was illusive. 
The sun shining on it caused it to change 


70 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

its shape and size with startling rapidity. 
When a small cloud passed before the face 
of the sun, it loomed up in the shadow like 
a gigantic tower of ice; but at other times 
it flashed and shifted its form, so that many 
times it seemed ready to vanish. 

The Northern Star was bowling along 
under a twelve-knot breeze, and the ice- 
berg was drifting toward it. This brought 
the two together rapidly. In a short time 
every one aboard the schooner could dis- 
tinctly make out the lines of the drifting 
iceberg. 

It was soon apparent to all that there 
was something dark and peculiar about 
one side of the great mass of floating ice. 
To the boys, unaccustomed to Arctic seas, 
there was presented a vision of an ice 
tower which might contain all sorts of 
peculiar possibilities. To them, the story 
of the Nancy Brown, imprisoned in a float- 
ing iceberg, appealed with great force, and 
not one of them thought that there could 
be any mistake about their discovery. 
Here was the Nancy, floating down on 
them in a cake of ice, ready for them to 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 71 

board and explore to their hearts’ content. 
Warren was even speculating on what he 
would do with the salvage money. 

“ I shall claim all of it,” he said, strut- 
ting up and down the deck. “ I did n’t 
agree to your bargain to divide. I made 
the discovery before Frank made the 
proposition.” 

“ But silence gives consent,” Frank an- 
swered, “and you didn’t refuse to accept 
the terms. Come now, Warren, you ’ll 
have to divide up with Harold and Louis 
and me. If you don’t, we ’ll run you off 
the football team when you get back to 
old Sheffield.” 

“You can’t frighten me that way,” 
Warren returned. “ I ’m not to be bluffed 
by you here on the high seas. You may 
own the football field and team, but 
you ’re not in it on the high seas. Why, 
you could n’t even see the iceberg when 
I pointed it out to you. You’d better 
have your eyes examined when you get 
home, Frank.” 

Louis, who had been staring at the ap- 
proaching iceberg, suddenly dropped his 


72 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

glasses, and said : “ Don’t be too sure of 
that salvage money, Warren. This is an 
iceberg, but it may not be the one that ran 
away with the NancyT 

“Why not? What have you found out? 
Oh, jealous of me! I did n’t think that of 
you, Louis I ” 

Unmindful of this sally, Louis continued: 

“ If you ’ll look through these glasses, 
you ’ll find that there is something moving 
on the iceberg.” 

“What! Somebody alive on it ! Did n’t 
all of the sailors leave the Nancy ? Have 
they been imprisoned on it all this time ?” 

“ I said something alive was on the ice- 
berg,” Louis replied. “ I did n’t say that 
it was a man or animal or bird.” 

If before there was eagerness to study 
the outlines of the approaching iceberg, it 
was more than doubled at this announce- 
ment, and for some time absolute silence 
fell on the group as they watched the 
queer object. As it drew nearer, they 
could see a dark line stretched irregularly 
from the base to the summit of the berg. 
Around the top of it birds were flying, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 73 

lighting occasionally on the ice, or dis- 
appearing from view on the other side. 
The dark line was wider and darker in the 
middle than at either end, and in some 
places it seemed broad enough to suggest 
some huge, writhing animal. More than 
that, it could be seen to move. It wriggled 
and changed its form and position as they 
gazed. For all the world it appeared as 
if the fabled sea-serpent had been located 
at last, stretching its great black length up 
the side of the iceberg. 

“What can it be.f^” gasped Warren. 

“ Certainly not the Nancy^' replied 
Louis. 

“No, your salvage money has disap- 
peared, Warren,” added Frank. 

Captain Pendleton walked toward the 
group, muttering aloud : “ That ’s the 
queerest sight I ever saw ! ” 

“ What do you make out of it ? ” asked 
Louis. 

Captain Pendleton chuckled softly. 
“ Some of my men are frightened,” he 
said. “ They are sure that it is a sea-ser- 
pent, or some great creature of the sea, 


74 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

watching for us. They want me to turn 
the ship around and sail away.” 

“ But can’t you make out anything 
definite.'^” persisted Louis, feeling sure 
that his father had already solved the 
problem. “ What are so many seabirds 
doing around the top ? Why, look, half 
the body of the creature has disappeared ! 
It ’s flying away ! ” 

Then Louis began to chuckle. He, 
too, realized the meaning of the strange 
illusion; but his companions were still 
utterly in the dark. 

“ What is it ? ” they demanded, breath- 
lessly, in a chorus. 

“ Nothing but an illusion ! You ’ll see 
in time ! ” 

“ Come, Louis, this suspense is killing. 
You might tell us now. I ’m dying to 
know! ” 

Louis took one more look through the 
glasses at the monster looming up ahead 
of them, and then said : “ That creature 
has wings, and in a few minutes it wil^ 
disappear, or at least part of it. You ’ll 
find that it is a stranger creature than the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 75 

fabled sea-serpent. I believe some of the 
accounts of the sea-serpent put wings on 
him, but this monster is even worse than 
that. It has many wings, and it has the 
power of flying away in parts. Now if you 
will watch, the head will fly away, and then, 
maybe, the tail, and last the body. It can 
do this without hurting itself in the least. 
It is a wonderful creature, more wonderful 
than any you ever read about.” 

While he spoke, his listeners alternately 
looked at him and at the iceberg. Sev- 
eral of the sailors who had overheard the 
remarks showed signs of nervousness. 
Superstitious to the core of their hearts, 
they needed only a little verification of 
their fears to excite them to unknown 
terror. Louis, glancing around and see- 
ing the sober faces of the sailors, gave 
vent to a loud peal of laughter. 

“ Why, can’t you see what it is ? ” he 
shouted so the men could hear him. “ It’s 
nothing but birds, a great colony of Arctic 
birds lighted on the iceberg. Some of 
them are jumping up and flying away, 
and then returning, all the time. That 


76 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

makes the sea-serpent wriggle and change 
his form. When we get nearer, they 
will fly up, and the serpent will vanish 
entirely.” 

Thus enlightened, the boys and the 
superstitious sailors studied the outlines 
more carefully, and in a few moments 
every one was convinced of the illusion. 
As the Northern Star approached closer, 
the birds grew more restless, and flew 
in denser flocks away from the iceberg. 
Some flew toward the schooner, and circled 
around it in huge numbers, flapping their 
wings with ceaseless and noiseless energy. 
There must have been thousands — almost 
millions — of birds on the iceberg. They 
had lighted on the upper inside of the 
berg, so that only a portion of them could 
be seen. Their dark bodies, outlined 
against the glistening snow and ice of 
the berg, produced the weird effect of a 
sea-serpent reposing on the sides and top 
of the floating mass. 

Captain Pendleton was about giving 
orders to change the course of the ship 
again, when the boys pleaded for a nearer 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 77 

view of the strange sea object. He ac- 
ceded to their request, and gradually the 
Northern Star approached within a quarter 
of a mile of the mass of floating ice. 

By that time the form of the sea-serpent 
had changed so that it could not in any 
way be misconstrued as anything but a 
dense mass of birds sitting on the ice. 
Thousands of the birds flew up in the air, 
and made their strange shrieks and cries 
as they moved toward the ship. They had 
evidently found a place of refuge and rest 
on the floating berg which pleased them, 
and they were resenting the disturbance 
of others. 

“ That is a strange sight,” Louis said. 
“ I never saw anything like it before. I Ve 
seen big colonies on the rocks and prom- 
ontories, but never out so far from the 
shore on a floating iceberg.” 

“ Then the Na^icy Brown is n’t in that 
berg at all.^^” Warren said rather patheti- 
cally. 

“ No, nor the sea-serpent either. We ’ll 
have to wait for the next one,” answered 
Louis. 


yS The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Then it will be my turn to sight it 
first,” said Frank. “ Now how about the 
salvage money, Warren ? ” 

Warren smiled and answered: “Oh, I 
think I ’ll agree with the rest of you, that 
we should divide it ! ” 

Frank merely uttered an exclamation of 
disgust. 


CHAPTER VIII 


S EVERAL other icebergs crossed the 
path of the schooner in the next few 
days, but none of them had the peculiar 
appearance of the first one. Some were 
huge towers of ice pinnacles capped with 
snow which glistened in the sunlight with 
wondrous prismatic effects, and others 
were short floating fields of ice with a 
few irregular formations in the centre to 
serve as apologies for icebergs. On some 
of them particles of driftwood and green 
moss could be seen, and occasionally col- 
onies of birds would collect to peck at the 
moss. 

To the boys, all of these sights con- 
tained something of interest and fascina- 
tion. Wrenched from their icy fields in 
the far north, and floated down on the 
tides of ocean, the bergs were alive with 
possible romance which no man could 
fathom. They may have witnessed scenes 


8o The Mysterious Beacon Light 

in the solitary Arctic seas that the world 
of science would gladly give anything to 
interpret. 

“ Some of them may have come from 
points farther north than any ship has 
ever visited,” Louis suggested one day, as 
they hung over the sides of the schooner, 
watching one float past. 

“ I should like to land on one,” said 
Frank, with the spirit of romance stirring 
within him. “ It would be worth while to 
come way up here, if one could go back 
and say that he had been adrift on an 
iceberg.” 

“ I don’t think you ’d want to stay there 
long,” replied Warren. “ It must be a 
pretty cold place to stay.” 

Louis said suddenly : “ We might row 
out to one. There ’s no wind this morn- 
ing, and the schooner is hardly moving 
at all. I ’ll see father.” 

This suggestion was greeted with ap- 
plause. The three young sailors waited 
eagerly for the return of Louis. When 
he appeared again, they knew by his face 
that he would give them a chance to pick 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 8i 

up some mementos of their strange trip 
north, from a floating iceberg. 

“ If you want a good pull at the oars, we 
can go,” he said. “ The sea is calm, and 
there is very little danger.” 

Half a mile away, becalmed on the still 
ocean, was a huge field of ice, surmounted, 
in the middle, by a tall pinnacle. Scattered 
over its surface were driftwood, moss, and 
various kinds of loose Arctic plants which 
had been carried down from their northern 
home by the loosened pack of ice. Ap- 
parently the field of ice did not move half 
a mile an hour. There was no wind to 
blow it, and the tides and currents were 
almost quiet at this point. 

“ None of the sailors can go with us,” 
Louis said. “ They are busy mending sails 
and tarring the decks, but we ought to be 
able to manage thex^all boat. We ’ll 
pull four oars, and makb^a quick trip to 
the ice field.” 

Louis was as eager for the adventure as 
his companions, and he hurriedly stowed 
away the oars in the boat, and prepared to 
launch her over the sides of the ship into 
6 


82 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the water. While they were working at 
the boat, Captain Pendleton appeared, and 
said : 

“ Don’t be gone long, for there are signs 
of a change in the air. I think we ’ll have 
another blow before night. If you hear 
the fog horn blowing, return at once. I ’ll 
watch you myself.” 

“Ay, ay, sir ! ” responded Louis, touch- 
ing his cap. 

With the help of the sailors, they were 
soon launched in their boat, and with steady 
stroke they pulled her across the water. 
At old Sheffield they had practised rowing 
enough to pull a steady and strong oar to- 
gether, and the boat made gallant speed 
through the long swells. The sea that had 
appeared so quiet from the deck of the 
schooner was not so dull and monotonous 
now that they were closer to its surface. 
There was a long swell which made the 
small boat bob up and down with a little 
disagreeable motion. On the vessel, this 
had not been so noticeable. 

“ I thought there was no sea at all,” said 
Harold, as he looked askance at the waves. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 83 

“ Does it make you seasick ? ” asked 
Louis, from the bow of the boat. “ If so, 
we will go back.” 

“ Oh, no, I 'm hardened to that now ! I 
was merely thinking of Frank.” 

Frank made no answer, but pulled stead- 
ily in the bow with Louis, until suddenly 
his oar seemed to slip, and the crest of a 
wave was caught in the blade and hurled 
directly at Harold’s head. 

“ Excuse me, Harold,” Frank said. “ I 
was thinking of you, and my thoughts 
must have influenced my oar.” 

“ I ’ll return it on the home trip,” Harold 
replied. “ We turn about then, and change 
positions, so that I ’ll be in the bow.” 

“ Now pull easy,” exclaimed Louis, 
suddenly, interrupting further remarks. 
“ Sometimes the edge of the ice field ex- 
tends far out in the sea underneath. We 
don’t want to get wrecked on it.” 

“ No,” replied Warren. “ I ’m not seek- 
ing that kind of adventure.” 

“ Then go slow, and be ready to obey 
orders promptly.” 

Louis stood up in the bow, and, with 


84 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

an oar ready to guide the boat, should 
they strike a projecting piece of ice from 
below, he slowly permitted them to row 
toward the edge of the field. As they 
drew nearer, the swells striking the edge of 
the ice field made a deep roar which re- 
sembled breakers on a sandy beach. All 
along on one side, a line of foam and froth 
was forming, caused by the swells striking 
the edge of the ice. 

“ We won’t land on this side,” Louis cau- 
tioned, “ for the waves strike it here, and we 
might have difficulty in reaching the firm 
ice, and getting on it safely. We must 
row around to the other side, where we can 
get under the lee of the berg.” 

The other side of the ice field was so 
sheltered from the waves that the water was 
perfectly calm. It was a good half mile 
farther away from the drifting schooner, 
and the boys laid down to their oars again 
with a will. Louis set the pace by count- 
ing, and Frank, taking his cue from him, 
took a stroke which the others had hard 
work to keep up with. The light boat 
shot sharply and smoothly over the water, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 85 

and in a short time they were nearing the 
edge of the ice field on the leeward side. 
It was so calm and peaceful here that even 
Harold felt his timidness dispelled. 

“ This is glorious ! ” he said, feeling the 
exhilarating effects of the row. 

The others responded in like expres- 
sions, and when they finally rested on their 
oars, at the command of Louis, they looked 
around to enjoy the scene. There was 
apparently no under part of the berg pro- 
jecting up at any considerable distance 
from the edge, and the boat was slowly 
rowed up within ten feet of the edge. 
Louis plunged his oar down in the water, 
and announced : “ There ’s ten feet of water 
here. I can just strike the bottom of the 
field with my oar. Now pull slowly.” 

The floor of the berg shelved up grad- 
ually, from ten feet to five, four, three, and 
two. When the nose of the boat crunched 
into the ice, they could see the bottom two 
feet below them. Instantly every oarsman 
started to his feet, and made preparations 
to jump on the ice cake. 

“ Here ! Here ! Get down there ! ” 


86 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

shouted Louis. “ What sort of discipline 
is this } Stand by your oars until told to 
ship them.” 

“ We ’re not on ship now,” protested 
Frank; “and we can do as we like.” 

“You are under my command, and, if 
you don’t obey, 1 11 return to the ship and 
have you courtmartialed.” 

Then, before any one of the crew could 
reply, Louis took his oar, and brought it 
down with a resounding whack on the ice 
edge. 

“ See there ! ” he shouted. “ If you had 
jumped on that ice, you might have been 
lost. It’s as weak as snow crust here. 
The salt water has honeycombed it so that 
it is ready to fall apart. We ’ll have to 
push along the edge until we find solid 
ice.” 

The boys returned to their seats with a 
little crestfallen air. They realized how 
near to peril they had been without once 
dreaming of it. 

“ I guess we ’ll stand by Louis’s orders 
hereafter,” Warren said. 

“ You 11 be wise if you do,” Frank added. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 87 

“ I ’m not going to think that I know it all 
any more up here in this strange sea. 
Everything is so different from where I Ve 
ever been before.” 

When they reached another point which 
Louis thought worth sounding, they waited 
patiently for him to give the order to ship 
their oars. With heads turned, but oars 
in position, they sat ready for the word of 
command. As before, Louis tested the 
depth of the water, and then the strength 
of the ice, both underneath the boat and 
on the outside edge of the field. This 
time, the oar did not break brittle snow 
ice, but it resisted the blow of the oar with 
a sharp, ringing sound. 

“ This is all right ! ” Louis shouted. 
“ Now we’ll anchor here and land.” 

Leading the way over the side of the 
boat, he pulled the anchor with him, and 
fastened it in the ice at the end of a five- 
fathom painter. The boys tumbled out of 
the boat after him, and there stood, a little 
group of Arctic explorers, adrift on a great 
field of ice. On all sides was ice, or the 
blue of the sea. A mile away was the 


88 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Northern Star^ with her sails flapping in 
the idle wind, and overhead the few north- 
ern seabirds were soaring with noiseless 
motion. 

“ This is like exploring for the North 
Pole,” exclaimed Frank. “ If we only had 
a few pack dogs and a sled, we ’d take an 
Arctic ride over the ice.” 

“ I think we ’ll have to hurry up in our 
explorations of this field of ice, and leave 
the imaginary North Pole for another day,” 
suggested Louis, scanning the horizon with 
the eye of a sailor. “We ’re going to get 
more wind soon, and father will be blowing 
the horn for us to return. Come, now, I 
want to reach that high mass of ice in the 
middle, and plant my hat on the highest 
point.” 

“We’ll have a race for it!” replied 
Frank, eager for any kind of sport or com- 
petition. 

In another moment they were scamper- 
ing across the field of ice in a close bunch, 
as they had many times before raced across 
the athletic field of the Sheffield School. 
It was a close race to the edge of the rising 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 89 

mass of ice. Then they began to slip and 
slide, so that they clung to one another 
to retain their footing. Great masses of 
ice had been piled upon each other, forced 
there by giant waves, and some crushing 
power of wind and currents of the ocean. 
These had been wedged in and frozen in a 
solid cake. Above these towered other 
huge masses. The power of the elements 
to compact such enormous pieces of ice, 
one upon another, until a veritable moun- 
tain had been formed, was manifested on 
all sides. It was like climbing huge rocks, 
which led to a mountain peak, to reach 
the summit of the iceberg in the centre. 
Snow had accumulated in dense masses in 
places, and the boys sunk waist-deep at 
times in this soft snow. 

Gradually, however, they neared the 
summit, which was fifty feet above the sur- 
face of the ice field, and soft and brittle 
where the sun had come in contact with it 
for many days. They worked their way 
along cautiously, kicking at the columns 
and cakes ahead, to see if they would hold. 

Finally, on the very summit of the berg. 


90 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

they stood, with the sea and ice field clearly 
visible on every side. A cheer escaped 
their lips, and, with four hats waving fran- 
tically in the air, they looked toward the 
ship, to attract the attention of the crew. 
It was an achievement for them that was 
well worth the endeavor. From the deck 
of the Northern Star Captain Pendleton 
watched them through his sea glasses with 
a little anxious look on his face. 

“ There now, they have reached it,” he 
exclaimed, “ and they will be satisfied. 
Blow the fog horn, Ned, for I don’t like 
the looks of the weather. We must get 
them back to the ship at once.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir, it is time, I think.” 

“ Yes, time,” replied the captain. Then, 
musing to himself, he added : 

“ But I had n’t the heart to deny them, 
although it was a little risky. I hope 
nothing will happen before they get 
back.” 


CHAPTER IX 


T he weather was uncertain enough 
to alarm Louis before the foo; horn 
sounded its strident call across the sea. 
In the midst of their hilarity, he glanced 
apprehensively at the western sky, and 
immediately concluded that it was time 
for them to make the return trip. Just 
then he heard the dismal echoes of the 
horn, which only confirmed his fears. 

“ Now we must race back to the boat,” 
he said, hoping to hurry his companions 
without alarming them. 

“ Oh, no, I don’t want to race back ! ” 
said Frank. “ I ’ll probably never see an 
ice floe at such close range again, and I ’m 
in no hurry to leave it.” 

“ But the horn is calling us, and we 
must obey like sailors,” replied Louis, 
starting on a dog-trot across the ice. 

“ We haven’t collected any mementos 
of our trip yet,” interposed Warren, stop- 


92 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

ping to examine some pieces of driftwood 
imbedded in the ice. 

They were evidently not anxious to 
hurry, and Louis bit his lip with a little 
expression of anxiety. He looked over 
his shoulder to catch another glimpse of 
the western sky. The storm of wind was 
coming up rapidly. He had his doubts now 
whether they could reach the schooner in 
time. He stood irresolute a moment, and 
then, hearing the sharp blasts of the horn 
again, he said quickly: 

“ Come, there ’s no time to linger. I ’m 
going back to the ship, and those who 
stay behind will get left.” 

He turned resolutely around and trotted 
toward the boat. Not once did he turn 
his head. There was no patter of feet 
behind him, but he was confident that, if 
he persisted in his race, the others would 
soon follow. 

Imagine his surprise when he reached 
the edge of the floe, where the boat was 
anchored, to find that he stood alone. 
The others were far behind, collecting and 
examining various articles that had drifted 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 93 

down with the ice floe. They were a 
quarter of a mile away, and paying no 
attention to him. 

The sharp blast of the fog horn fell 
apparently upon deaf ears. The boys were 
too eager in their researches to heed it. 
For once the flush of anger surged up in 
the face of Louis. They had deliberately 
refused to obey his wishes and commands. 
For such an offence any member of the 
football team at old Sheflield would have 
been unceremoniously turned down by 
Frank. Was it not more important up 
here, in the lonely, dangerous Arctic 
regions, for every one to obey orders of 
the leader.? 

Had Louis not been impressed by the 
peril approaching, he would have rowed 
back to the Northern Star alone, and left 
his companions on the ice floe until they 
appealed for help. It was what they de- 
served; but, under the circumstances, he 
did not care to take the risk. Indeed, it 
was an appalling danger that threatened, 
and every minute counted as precious. 
Raising his voice he shouted wildly to 


94 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

them, pointing to the darkened western 
sky. A glance at the heavens, more than 
his voice, made them suddenly desist in 
their aimless search for relics, and, with a 
startled cry of alarm, they sprinted toward 
the long boat. 

But in their hurry Frank slipped on 
the ice, slid along it for a few feet, and 
then lay quite still. Harold and Warren 
stopped to help him. With difficulty they 
got him on his feet again, and then, with 
the boys supporting him, he limped slowly 
along. 

Meanwhile the clouds had overcast the 
heavens on all sides, and the booming of 
thunder startled the quietness of the ocean. 
The vivid lightning flashed and rent the 
clouds asunder, while great drops of rain 
spattered down upon them. 

The fear of danger now seized the boys, 
and they made all the speed possible to 
reach the side of Louis. Frank, pale and 
suffering from his sprained ankle, was the 
most anxious of the trio to reach the boat. 
One glance out upon the dark, frowning 
sea made him shudder. When they finally 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 95 

reached the boat, Louis stood by its side 
calmly surveying them. 

“ What is it ; another of those fearful 
storms ? ” one of the boys gasped. 

“ Yes, and you ’re going to be caught in 
it, just because of your refusal to obey 
orders.” 

“ But we did n’t know there was any 
danger,” Harold apologized. 

“ No, but you knew that I was in 
command of this expedition, and I gave 
the order to hurry to the boat,” replied 
Louis, sternly. “You saw fit to do as 
you pleased. Now you’ll have to take 
the consequences.” 

“ But we did n’t know,” pleaded Frank. 

The eyes of Louis flashed. He turned 
upon the captain of the old football team, 
and replied sharply: 

“ You should have been the first to obey, 
Frank. You make us obey orders when 
playing on the team, and you should set 
an example now in discipline.” 

“ But I—” 

Warren interrupted Frank’s attempt at 
an excuse, by jumping into the boat, and 


96 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

saying : “ Don’t stop to quarrel now. 
We ’re losing time.” 

Louis turned fiercely upon him. 

“ Get out of that boat ! ” he said 
harshly. 

“What for.f^” demanded Warren, sul- 
lenly. 

“ I ’ll give you ten seconds to obey, or 
I ’ll drop you in the water ! ” 

There was no mistaking their leader’s 
anger and determination. He was physi- 
cally superior to any of them, and when 
he stood with blazing eyes and clenched 
hands ready to carry out his threat, War- 
ren obeyed. 

“ I don’t know what for,” he grumbled. 

“ No, but your first duty is to obey, 
and then you may find out later,” Louis 
answered in a less insistent voice. “ I 
want you all to understand in the future, 
that when I ’m in command, I shall be 
obeyed promptly, and without excuse or 
question. You can see what your dis- 
obedience to orders is going to cost you 
now.” 

“ Is there any danger ? ” Warren asked. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 97 

“ If so, why not hurry back to the ship ? 
Time is precious.” 

“ No, it is n’t now. It was when I gave 
the order to retreat. Now you can all sit 
down on the ice and take all the time you 
need to collect specimens.” 

“ But why don’t we return to the 
ship.? ” 

“ Because we can’t. It ’s too late. Our 
boat would be swamped in this sea and 
wind in five minutes.” 

The three boys stared at one another in 
perplexity and fear. “ What can we do, 
then ? ” they asked in dismal voices. 

“ We must stay on the ice floe until the 
storm has passed,” Louis replied grimly. 
“ It ’s our only hope. If the wind and 
waves don’t break the ice in pieces, we 
may come out all right.” 

This information was not received with 
pleasure. The ice floe suddenly lost its 
fascination for the boys. It was well 
enough to play on it in pleasant weather, 
but to be cast adrift on it in a storm was 
quite another story. The darkening sky 
had already nearly shut from their view 
7 


98 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the Northern Star, and they glanced in 
the direction of the vanishing ship with 
longing eyes. But to Louis there was 
something more than fear and longing ; 
he wondered if his father would suffer 
greater agony than they at the separa- 
tion. If anything happened to them, 
Captain Pendleton would never forgive 
himself. 

The sails of the schooner were now 
blowing heavily in the gale, and the ship 
was working slowly toward the ice floe. 
This, in view of the storm, was a dan- 
gerous move. Louis realized this, and 
wanted to signal to his father not to 
approach nearer. A collision in the dark- 
ness with the big ice floe would wreck 
the Northern Star, so that all lives would 
be lost. 

Then it occurred to Louis that his father 
was watching for him to launch the small 
boat, so that the schooner could stand by 
and pick them up. To relieve him of any 
such fear, Louis suddenly decided that their 
safety depended upon clinging to the ice 
floe, and retaining their small boat intact. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 99 

If his father could be made to realize this, 
he would stand off from the floe until the 
storm was over, and then return and pick 
them up. Conscious that his father was 
watching them closely through his sea 
glasses, Louis sprang toward the boat, and 
shouted : 

“ All hands help me to drag the boat on 
the ice! We must save her anyway! 
Now together 1 ” 

This time there was no tendency to ig- 
nore his orders. Every boy took his posi- 
tion by the side of the boat, and with a 
strong pull they lifted it from the water to 
the ice. 

“ Pull her back as far as we can,” Louis 
added. “ There will be a heavy sea on, and 
the waves may wash fifty feet over the 
edge of the ice.” 

As if to confirm his words, the wind 
lashed the sea into a wild fury, and the 
waves broke with a resounding roar against 
the edge of the ice floe. The wind howled 
and shrieked, while the darkness increased 
so that the Northern Star slowly vanished 
from view ; but the last sight Louis caught 
L.ofC. 


lOO 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

of her, she was heading away from the ice. 
Captain Pendleton had evidently under- 
stood the sudden move of the boys, and he 
tacitly took the hint and sailed out of the 
zone of danger. 

But with the total disappearance of the 
ship, a new fear seemed to possess the 
castaways. Each one shuddered, but not 
a word was spoken. The heavy thunder of 
the storm made the scene wild and painful, 
while the lightning flashes failed to reveal 
the presence of the Northern Star, In 
vain they waited for each successive flash 
to catch a glimpse of the ship. She 
was nowhere to be seen, and the great 
boundless ocean appeared as deserted and 
lonely as if a ship had never been launched 
on it. 

The storm proved a veritable hurricane 
and cyclone, sweeping down upon the de- 
fenceless heads of the boys as if it would 
destroy them at one fell swoop. The waves 
rose higher and higher in their fury, and 
swept upon the surface of the ice floe with 
terrible earnestness. Fortunately the boys 
were on the lee side of the floe, and the 


lOI 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

worst of the breakers were far from them. 
The roar of the waves breaking on the 
opposite side of the big floe sounded like 
the booming of heavy artillery, and it could 
easily be heard above the shriek of the wind. 

Great blinding drops of rain poured from 
the clouds, deluging the frightened casta- 
ways as if buckets of water had been 
dropped over them. Louis had them turn 
the boat bottom up, and they crawled under 
this for shelter. For a time, this protec- 
tion relieved them of a part of the discom- 
fort. But the waves, dashing higher and 
higher over the ice, soon flung their spray 
over the boat. 

Louis crawled from under the boat 
and shouted: “We must move farther 
back. Come now, all hands at the boat 
again ! ’’ 

Toilsomely they dragged and pushed 
the boat farther up on the ice floe until 
the pursuing waves were left in the rear. 
Then, breathing hard from their violent 
exertions, they once more crawled under 
its shelter and waited for the storm to pass. 
Louis, however, was less satisfied than his 


102 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

companions. He knew more of the work 
of destruction of the summer storms, and 
he understood how frail was the support 
on which they rested. 

He listened intently to the noises around, 
applying his ear to the cold ice underneath 
them, as if to catch some new faint sound 
in the distance. The others did not know 
what he was listening for. Their position 
was miserable enough without anticipating 
any greater danger or discomfort. When 
Louis finally crawled from under the boat, 
he appeared calm and undisturbed, but he 
was far from contented and satisfied. He 
walked away toward the line of breakers, 
and was gone for some moments. In the 
darkness his disappearance added terror to 
the minds of the boys, and they shouted 
for him to return. 

“ Don’t leave us, Louis,” Frank ex- 
claimed, as their leader’s form appeared 
again. “Why don’t you stay here and 
wait?” 

If they could have seen his pale, drawn 
face in the darkness, they would have 
understood something of his thoughts 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 103 

and actions. He kneeled down where 
the boys were crouching, and said : 

“ Frank, the ice floe is breaking up, and 
we are in great danger! It may go to 
pieces any moment I ” 


CHAPTER X 



HIS announcement sent a thrill 


JL through the three that, for a mo- 
ment, held them dumb with amazement 
and surprise. It w^as Louis who spoke 
again, trying hard not to express in his 
voice the fear that clutched at his heart. 
Not until then had he entirely despaired 
of weathering the storm on the ice floe, 
especially if they could retain intact their 
boat in which to escape when the storm 
had subsided. But his visit to the sides 
of the ice floe showed him that their inse- 
cure resting place was rapidly going to 
pieces. The waves were crumbling the 
rotten ice into powder, and breaking off 
huge cakes which floated away on the 
sea as toys for the sea. 

Rapidly the encroachment of the waves 
was dividing the floe into a dozen pieces, 
and unless they were fortunate enough to 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 105 

remain on the largest cake, they would 
inevitably be washed into the sea. 

“We must get up and move,” Louis 
continued. “ I hardly know what to do. 
It is so dark that I cannot see where the 
waves have cut through the ice. I know 
they are close to us on this side, and also 
over on that side. They may have already 
cut us off on the other two sides.” 

“ Then there is no hope for us ? ” gasped 
Harold, in anguish. “ Won’t our boat live 
in this sea? ” 

“Not a minute,” Louis replied; “and 
yet we must n’t desert the boat. We 
must drag that with us. It may be that, 
if we can reach the higher ice of the berg, 
we shall be saved. I see no other way 
out of our trouble.” 

“ Then let us hurry away.” 

“Yes, but which way is the berg? I ’m 
turned around, and the waves appear to 
surround us.” 

They stopped in amazement to see if 
they could measure the distance to the 
berg and distinguish the different points 
of the compass. Huddled together in the 


io6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

drenching rain, they waited until Louis 
spoke again. 

“ We must move at any rate ! ” he said. 
“We’ll go in this direction. I don’t hear 
breakers off there ! ” 

Dragging the heavy boat through the 
wind and rain was no small feat, and they 
toiled at their task until their hands were 
swollen. But the fear of their impending 
fate kept them at their task. They forgot 
their own pain and weariness of limbs. 
For half an hour they pulled the boat 
across the ice, and they were soon con- 
gratulating themselves on their security. 
Suddenly, at their very feet, there was a 
loud booming noise, like the crackling of 
a heavy gun. The ice beneath them ap- 
peared to open, and, from the crack thus 
formed, the water rushed and gurgled up 
with a loud hissing noise. Louis, stand- 
ing at the bow of the boat, caught the first 
rush of the water, and flung up his hands 
with a cry of warning. 

Then the waves overcame him, and 
swept him past the group. As he disap- 
peared in the water, Warren, Frank, and 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 107 

Harold saved themselves by jumping in 
the lifeboat, which, caught on the huge 
swell of water, was carried fifty feet along 
and thrown violently over on its side. 
The three boys were thrown out of the 
boat, but, instead of landing in the sea, 
they fell on the ice. 

Picking themselves up and clutching 
the boat with both hands, they tried to 
clear their eyes and mouths of water. 
When they could speak again, Frank 
gasped : “ Where is Louis ? Is he lost ? ” 

There was no response from Louis, and 
a groan escaped the lips of the three sur- 
vivors. With the loss of their leader, 
what prospect had they of escaping ? All 
around the battling of the storm and waves 
continued with unabated fury, and the 
breakers roared nearer and nearer to 
them. Their frail boat seemed like a 
puny cockleshell before the wild fury of 
such a sea. Yet they clung to it on the 
ice, as their last refuge. 

Temporarily they were out of all dan- 
ger, for the cracking ice did not extend to 
where they were grouped, and beneath their 


io8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

feet it was firm and solid. The surging 
waters which had cast them up had like- 
wise receded, and were now washing and 
breaking against the edges of the two 
parted floes. Even in the darkness the 
boys could see that half of their floe had 
been cut adrift and their home much nar- 
rowed. Behind them the solid ice ex- 
tended for some distance, but they were 
not sure whether they were on the floe 
which connected with the thicker ice of 
the berg, or on a floating fragment. 

“We must move away from here,” Frank 
finally exclaimed, as the roaring breakers 
appeared to come nearer. “We must 
reach the higher ice, or we ’ll be washed 
away yet.” 

“ But not without Louis,” replied War- 
ren. “We surely must look for him. 
How can we get along without him ? ” 

The other two shuddered at the words, 
for they were as conscious of their great 
loss as was Warren. They were indeed 
helpless shipwrecks without their leader. 
For some time they remained silent, cling- 
ing to their boat, and listening to the roar 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 109 

of the storm and sea. Then a huge wave 
dashed up over the smooth ice and nearly 
lifted them off their feet. This immedi- 
ately brought them to their senses, and 
simultaneously they sprang up and began 
pulling the lifeboat farther upon the ice. 

Farther and farther from the breakers 
they crawled, not knowing whither they 
were going, and scarcely conscious of the 
lurking dangers all around. The sharp 
cracking of the ice at intervals boomed far 
above the wind and rain, and each time 
the boys stopped and trembled with fear. 
They knew not whether the next break 
would develop at their very feet, or a quar- 
ter of a mile away. 

“ Poor Louis,” Frank sobbed more than 
once. 

“ What will Captain Pendleton say ? ” 
Warren added. 

“ He ’ll think we deserted him,” Harold 
said sadly. “ But there was nothing we 
could do.” 

Onward they trudged, finding the ice 
firmer as they proceeded, until Frank 
suddenly shouted : “ This is the right 


no The Mysterious Beacon Light 

direction ! The ice is firmer and higher 
here, and I think I can see the top of the 
berg ahead.” 

Through the mists of the night and 
storm-clouds a white vision did appear at 
intervals. With eyes fastened on it, the 
three hurried forward as fast as their heavy 
burden would permit. The boat was 
growing heavier to drag at every rod, and 
they were by this time all panting with 
their exertions. 

When they reached a point a hundred 
yards back from the breakers, they felt 
quite secure, and once more seated them- 
selves on the ice, under the overturned 
boat. For some time they lay there, pro- 
tected from the wind and sleet, silently lis- 
tening to the howling of the wind and the 
distant moaning of the sea. 

“We never expected this when we 
started on our vacation,” remarked Har- 
old, with an attempt to appear as light- 
hearted as the circumstances permitted. 

“ If we ever get out of it, I think we ’ll 
have something to remember as long as 
we live,” Warren rejoined. 


Ill 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Did you ever hear or read of sailors 
cast away on a cake of ice with a boat as 
a protection, and no food or drink to save 
them from starvation ? ” asked Frank. 

“ It ’s worse than Robinson Crusoe’s 
adventure. He had an island that 
would n’t melt or drift away.” 

“ I don’t know. We may go in search 
of help, while Robinson had to wait for 
ships to come to him.” 

“ And icebergs always have the knack 
of floating in the path of vessels,” added 
Warren. 

“ But ours may prove the exception to 
the rule, and stay up here forever.” 

“ Or melt in this storm. I never saw 
so much rain.” 

Outside it was beating down upon the 
boat with a wild tattoo. Occasionally icy 
sleet and hailstones would rain down with 
the wind, and create a noise that suggested 
the patter of many feet. 

“ If we only had a light, we might be 
more comfortable,” suggested one of the 
castaways, mournfully. 

“ Or something to eat. I ’m terribly 


1 12 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

hungry ! I did n’t notice it when we were 
working, but now I feel so hollow that I 
think I ’m ready to collapse.” 

The storm was subsiding a trifle, but 
the thunder continued to roll in the dis- 
tance, with occasional flashes of lightning. 
The boys drew as much comfort out of 
their position as possible. They were so 
thankful that they had been delivered from 
the death which had claimed Louis, that 
other things appeared less distressing to 
them. 

Finally, when the storm showed distinct 
signs of breaking and passing away, they 
stretched their cramped wet limbs and 
prepared to emerge from their place of 
refuge. Frank had ducked his head 
under one end of the boat, when a loud 
crack startled him. It was as if a heavy 
object had fallen from the clouds with 
the rain. It struck the top of the boat 
repeatedly. 

At first the boys thought of the crack- 
ing ice, and wondered if their island had 
once more been cut in two by the sea. 
Then, as it rattled against the top of 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 113 

their boat directly over their heads, they 
knew that it was not the ice breaking up. 
The uncanniness of the noise startled 
them. The thought of Robinson Crusoe 
and his savages flashed through their 
minds. Was their island of ice also in- 
habited? Were there people on it, or 
more likely polar bears ? 

Every one held his breath ; the noise 
was repeated, but more faintly. This 
time it had the distinct sound of some- 
body rapping the top of the boat with 
a heavy object. Then a moan reached 
their ears. This at first mystified them. 

Frank was the first to recover his self- 
possession. What human being could 
be on the ice except Louis? With a 
sudden jump, he crawled from under the 
boat. Once outside he could see the dark 
form of a prostrate man back of the boat, 
with one hand reaching out to touch it 
with a piece of driftwood. Frank sprang 
to the man’s side and said : 

“ Louis ! Louis ! Is that you ? ” 

These words brought Warren and Har- 
old from under cover, and the three bent 
8 


1 14 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

over the figure stretched out on the ice. 
In the upturned face they quickly recog- 
nized their lost companion, but the eyes 
were closed, and the face drawn and 
pale. 


CHAPTER XI 


I N the extreme darkness it was difficult 
to tell whether Louis was dead or 
not. Frank, kneeling on the ice, tried to 
catch a faint beat of his heart, but the 
noise of the storm made this impossible. 
So far as they could judge, life was extinct, 
and only the corpse of their friend had 
been washed up to them, in this strange 
manner. There was little hope of resus- 
citating him, if he were still alive, for they 
'had no medicines or dry warm clothes to 
help nature in her fight [against death. 
With tender hands they lifted him from 
the ice and carried him under their over- 
turned boat, where the rain could not beat 
upon the white face. Once under shelter, 
Frank said : “We must rub his hands and 
feet until he moves. That’s all we can 
do at present.” 

Under the friction of their hands, a faint 
warmth seemed to glow in the body, and 


ii6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

within ten minutes the boys were over- 
joyed at a slight sigh which escaped the 
lips. 

“ He ’s alive ! He ’s alive ! ” shouted 
Warren, who first detected the faint 
breathing. 

With renewed energy they applied them- 
selves to the task of restoring Louis to 
life and consciousness. They rubbed the 
limbs and body with more vigor, and even 
placed their own damp coats over his 
shoulders to increase the protection from 
the cold. 

Slowly their efforts were rewarded. 
Louis sighed again, and then moved an 
arm gently. In time his eyelids fluttered, 
and for a brief instant they opened. After 
that the boys knew that he was still 
in a position to make a brave fight 
for life. If they only had a fire to dry 
his clothes, or to warm the space under 
the boat, they would have found their 
task easier. But there was no time to 
worry over the impossible. The need of 
action was great, and each castaway felt 
that the responsibility rested heavily upon 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 117 

his shoulders. For some time the angry 
storm outside lost its terrors for them. 
The sea, roaring and rolling in the dis- 
tance, seemed more like the echo of a 
dream. Even when the ice near them 
cracked with an ominous sound, they 
were only temporarily alarmed. 

A full half hour elapsed before Louis 
finally opened his eyes, stared through 
the darkness, and tried to collect his 
thoughts. When he smiled, a faint rec- 
ollection of his position, and the events 
which had led up to it, possessed him. 

“ I must have fainted,” he murmured. 
“ I rapped on the boat, but I could n’t 
speak. Then I grew dizzy, and I lost 
control of everything.” 

“You gave us an awful fright, Louis,” 
Frank said in a voice that trembled a lit- 
tle. “We thought you were dead, and — 
and now we ’re so glad that you ’re not.” 

“ I thought so myself for a time,” Louis 
replied. “When that wave took me away, 
I thought I ’d seen my last of you. I 
don’t see how you were all saved from it.” 

“ It washed us upon the ice, and flung 


ii8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

us like driftwood out of the surf,” Harold 
responded. “ I was never handled so 
roughly in my life ! ” 

“ But the boat — how did you save 
that ? ” Louis asked. 

“ The boat was tossed up with us,” War- 
ren replied. “ Then we clung to it, and 
it has saved our lives once since.” 

“ But how were you saved ? ” Frank 
interrupted. “We want to hear your 
story.” 

Louis raised his head on an elbow, and 
continued : 

“ There is n’t much to tell. I was flung 
around in the water, and carried out into 
the open sea. I don’t know just how it 
all happened, it was done so quickly. I 
found myself battling with big cakes of ice 
and waves. One moment I would find 
myself floating on a big cake of ice, and 
then I would be knocked off, and had to 
swim. I must have fought around for ten 
minutes in this way, getting bruises all 
over me, and then I remember saying to 
myself, that I could n’t keep it up any 
longer. I was so weak that I was ready to 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 119 

give up. Just then a big wave caught me 
and carried me along on its crest as if I 
had been a piece of cork. I gave up 
battling then. I felt that my time had 
come. I knew I would have to go where 
the wave took me. 

“ When it finally dropped me, I thought 
the world had come to an end. My whole 
body was bruised and cut by a blow that, 
for a time, made me unconscious. When 
I recovered, I found I was lying on the ice 
again. The last wave had thrown me so 
far upon the ice that the others could not 
reach me. Then I crawled along until I 
found your boat turned upside down. 
I did n’t know whether I should have 
strength enough to reach it or not. At 
first I thought it was alone, and that all of 
you had been lost. Then I heard a noise 
inside, and Frank’s voice reached my ear. 
I think the joy of finding some of you alive 
made me faint, as much as my weakness 
and bruises. At any rate I ’ve heard that 
sudden joy will sometimes overcome one 
quicker than bad news.” 

“ Then we should all be overcome,” 


120 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

replied Harold, with a whimsical smile. 
“ I don’t think anything better could hap- 
pen to us than to find you, Louis.” 

The boy looked up with a grateful 
expression in his eyes, but he answered: 
“ Nothing, probably, than to find a way to 
get safely back to the Northern Star. I 
wonder where she is now ! ” 

There was complete silence in the group. 
Huddled together under the boat, their 
minds rushed back in remembrance to 
the schooner, which at that very moment 
was battling with the elements for its very 
existence. None knew better than Louis 
how fierce was the storm and raging sea ; 
but, whether he feared for the safety of his 
father or not, he did not express his 
troubled thoughts in words. Instead, he 
turned his attention to their immediate 
needs. They were certainly far from out 
of danger. Even though the storm should 
subside, and their field of ice prove large 
enough to hold them for weeks and 
months, the prospect of suffering for lack 
of food and water was not very comforting. 
After such a storm the sea would not calm 


I2I 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

down very quickly, and it might be days 
before it would be safe for them to launch 
the boat. 

Suddenly, while they were listening and 
thinking of the past, Frank put a hand 
out from under the shelter of the boat, 
and exclaimed : 

“ The storm is passing away. It ’s only 
raining a little bit.” 

Louis roused himself from his sad reflec- 
tions, and said : 

“ Then we must turn over our boat, 
and catch some drinking water.” 

“ I think we Ve had water enough to 
last us for a time, both fresh and salt,” 
responded Frank. 

“ Not if the storm passes. You ’ll soon 
find that the worst thing that can happen 
to a shipwrecked sailor is to get out of 
water. We have nothing else to catch 
the rain-water in, so we must turn the 
boat over.” 

There was no intention to question the 
wisdom of Louis’s remarks, but Frank 
could not refrain from adding : “ But 
you’ll get wet again, and you’re weak.” 


122 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ I ’m all right now. I was weak and 
bruised. Turn the boat over, and catch 
some water before it is too late.” 

While Louis sat up on the ice, the 
others, with a hard pull together, turned 
the boat over. The rain had indeed by 
this time nearly stopped, and Louis be- 
came anxious lest they were too late to 
catch any of it. He had once heard his 
father describe the awful agony of being 
without water, when cast adrift on the sea, 
and the mere remembrance of it made 
him thirsty now, despite the wet condition 
of his clothes and body. 

But there were fitful gusts of wind, 
blowing out of the scudding clouds, which 
dropped good showers of water down upon 
them. As the clouds parted, and the rain 
ceased to fall, the light slowly brightened 
up their surroundings. As the returning 
dawn widened the horizon of their view, 
the boys watched with keen interest 
the position they had accidentally taken 
on the ice. At first the ice and sea 
and clouds all seemed to merge into 
one dim, foggy blanket, and they were 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 123 

unable to find any line separating them. 
But gradually the line of the sea grew 
more distinct. They could see then the 
size of their prison. They were only a 
short distance from the highest part of the 
ice floe, and on all sides the surf of the sea 
was breaking. 

Altogether, their strange floating island 
was half a mile across in one direction, 
and scarcely a third in another. The 
edges were weakened by the pounding 
waves, so that, while they looked, pieces 
of ice broke off and floated away. The 
thickness of the ice in the centre had 
evidently been their safety. The berg 
towered some thirty to fifty feet above 
the water, and, from this pinnacle, the ice 
sloped gradually to the water. To Louis, 
the iceberg appeared to lean on one side, 
as if ready to topple over. 

“ When this ice around us crumbles 
away,” he said, pointing to the berg, “ the 
whole thing will topple over. We must 
get off before that happens. The sea and 
rain have completely ruined and weakened 
the whole floe.” 


124 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ How soon will the berg topple over, 
do you think ? ” asked Warren, anxiously. 

“ Probably in a day or two, or it may 
stay just as it is now for a week. It all 
depends upon the wind and waves.” 

They were really camped on the ice at 
a dangerous point, and, after the light was 
strong and steady enough to enable them 
to study their surroundings intelligently, 
Louis proposed that they move more 
toward the centre. With a few gallons 
of fresh water collected in the bottom of 
their boat, but with no food whatever, 
they once more started to shove their boat 
farther away from the line of the breakers. 

When at a safe distance, Louis walked 
with the others to the summit of the ice- 
berg, climbing up the slippery sides until 
they had a fair view of the ocean on every 
side. Each one hoped and expected to 
catch a glimpse of the Northern Star, but 
not one of the castaways expressed his 
thoughts. Silently they stood on their 
high perch and scanned the horizon with 
its wide line of foam and froth. 

Louis sighed, and said : “ I don’t see 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 125 

any signs of the Northern Star. She 
must have been blown far out of her 
course.” 

“ Will Captain Pendleton ever be able 
to find us ” 

“ He will do his best, but we must not 
wait for him. We must try to look out 
for ourselves.” 

“ Y es,” assented Frank, doubtfully. “ But 
what can we do } ” 

Louis tried to laugh, as he asked : 
“ What would you do, Frank, if your foot- 
ball team was going to pieces before a 
better team ? ” 

“ I ’d pull the fellows together, and try 
some new trick to save the day.” 

“ Exactly, and that ’s what we must do. 
We must pull ourselves together, and try 
to find some trick that will save us. First, 
then, we must have drink and food. We 
have the first, but the latter we must get.” 

“ Well, what can we do to get that } 
We ’re worse off than Robinson Crusoe. 
Our island has n’t even trees and grass, 
absolutely nothing but ice.” 

“ True, and we can’t live on ice alone.” 


126 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Rather thin diet,” suggested Harold, 
with a grimace. “ It might do on a hot 
day ; but I ’m too cold now to suit me. 
My feet have had ice enough under them 
to last me the rest of my life.” 


CHAPTER XII 


T he problem of securing food pressed 
with increasing force upon the boys. 
It had been a long time since they had 
eaten, and they felt hungry and weak from 
their prolonged abstinence. The value of 
their rain-water was soon manifest to them, 
for, with the pangs of hunger increasing, 
they felt the necessity of drinking more and 
oftener than usual. Louis had taken an 
iron nail from the boat, and he bent this 
in the shape of a hook, but he had no bait, 
and his fishing experiences were not very 
satisfactory. 

“ Do you think we ’ll eat uncooked 
fish ? ” asked Frank. 

“You will soon be thankful to get any- 
thing,” Louis replied. 

This prediction was soon verified. Even 
Frank confessed that he was hungry 
enough to eat a raw fish, if he had one ; 


128 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

but at the expiration of several hours they 
were no nearer food than before. 

Matters were hourly growing so serious 
that Louis finally threw down his hook, 
and exclaimed: “We must launch our 
boat, and try to reach the shore. We ’ll 
starve here ! ” 

“ But how far off is the coast ? ” 

“ I don’t know. It may be fifty or a 
hundred miles.” 

“ Which direction is it in ? ” 

“ I don’t know that,” replied Louis, a 
little irritably. “ How can I tell without 
a compass ? ” 

“Then don’t you think we’re safer 
right here ? ” 

“No, I don’t. We can move around in 
a boat. Here we can only stand still and 
wait, and I never found anything come to 
me yet by waiting. I ’m going to hunt 
for the shore, or die in the attempt.” 

There was a feeble chorus of assents to 
this ; but somehow the thought of embark- 
ing in their frail boat, in such a sea, had 
no attraction for them. 

“ It will soon be night,” Frank added, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 129 

looking around at the horizon. “Should n’t 
we wait until morning before we leave ? ” 

Louis turned abruptly and walked 
toward the highest part of the ice floe. 
“ I must look around again,” he muttered. 
“ The Northern Star can’t be far off.” 

Gloomily he stood on the top of the ice- 
berg, looking around the sea, hoping that 
some object would appear that could be 
made to resemble a ship. Then suddenly, 
as his eyes roamed around, he gave a 
smothered exclamation. 

“ What is it ? ” one of his companions 
asked. 

“ There ! Over there ! It ’s the coast ! ” 
he shouted excitedly. 

“ I don’t see anything but a cloud,” 
replied Frank. 

“ No ; but it ’s the coast line. Quick, we 
must leave at once and reach it before 
dark ! ” 

Frank started to make some further 
excuse ; but remembering past experiences, 
he suddenly stopped and turned to hurry 
toward the boat with the rest. The oars 
were gone, and for a moment the problem 
9 


130 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

of propelling the boat through the sea 
seemed without a solution. Not even 
Louis had thought of the oars, and his 
face had a blank expression on it. 

“We can’t make the shore without oars,” 
Warren said. 

“Yes, we can,” sharply answered Louis, 
showing by his decision that he had arrived 
at a plan of action. He turned his head an 
instant, and held up a hand. 

“ The wind is blowing in the right direc- 
tion. We can sail there.” 

“ But where can we get the sails ? ” 

“ Rip up this plank ! ” commanded Louis, 
indicating one of the long narrow planks 
laid inside of the boat. Four pairs 'of 
strong hands soon pulled the narrow plank 
from its position. Then Louis fastened it 
in the bow of the boat with a few nails 
loosened from it. In this position it 
formed a slender, uncertain mast; but to 
Louis it appeared as satisfactory as if made 
in some shipyard for the boat. 

“ Now you ’ll have to strip off your 
coats,” he said. “ I ’ll use mine first.” 

With the four coats spread out on the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 13 1 

ice, Louis proceeded to tie them together 
by their sleeves until he had a considera- 
ble sail area. 

“ Not a very handsome sail,” he re- 
marked, “ and one that you could n’t use 
going against the wind, but I think it will 
carry us.” 

The sail was not to be hoisted until the 
boat was launched in the water, free from 
the ice. They folded it carefully and 
placed it in the bow of the boat, near the 
slender mast. 

“We need a rudder next,” Louis said, 
looking around for another plank which 
would suit his purpose. Near the stern 
there was a short thick board which served 
little purpose in holding the boat together. 
This was next torn from its position with 
difficulty. 

“Now we’re ready for the launching,” 
announced the leader of the castaways. 

They shoved the boat across the ice 
toward the lee side, where the waves were 
slight. When they approached the edge, 
every boy stood ready to jump in the boat, 
should the ice crack and give way beneath 


132 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

their weight. But, fortunately, the ice had 
been worn little at this point, and they 
were enabled to push the bow of the boat 
into the sea, before the ominous noise of 
cracking ice greeted their ears. 

“ Now jump aboard ! ” shouted Louis, 
as the sharp boom of the breaking ice 
sounded on the air. “Shove her hard, 
and jump ! ” 

Two on a side, they pushed the boat out 
into the sea, and then struggled free of the 
waves, as she floated in the clear water. 
The force of the push carried the boat a 
dozen feet from the ice floe, and the wind 
quickly increased the distance. It was 
now impossible, without oars, to return to 
the floe. They were drifting before the 
wind, and nothing they could do would 
serve to alter their course. 

Louis handed Harold the top of the 
sail, and, with Frank and Warren on either 
side, they managed to adjust the four coats 
in such a way that the wind blew them 
out in one single sail. They had no string 
or rope, and two of the castaways held the 
lower part of the sail, while the third 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 133 

watched to see that none of the knots 
loosened. Louis seated himself in the 
stern, and, with his improvised rudder 
thrown overboard, he managed to steer 
his craft in the direction of the land. 

The land was still nothing but a dark, 
cloudy effect in the distance. It more 
than once deceived even Louis, making 
him feel that he had been mistaken, after 
all. The rapid approach of night added 
to his anxiety. The boat was scudding 
along rapidly, for the wind was blowing 
a good gale, and the sail was proving a 
great success. 

Finally, Louis caught his first certain 
glimmering of the coast. The jagged 
outline of a headland became so plain that 
there could be no mistake. Standing up 
in the stern of the boat, he communicated 
his discovery to the rest. 

“ It ’s land ! ” he shouted. “ It ’s land ! ” 

“ So you said before,” Frank replied. 

“Yes, but I wasn’t so sure of it then. 
Now I know.” 

“ Then you brought us out here on an 
uncertainty ? ” 


134 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Not exactly,” laughed Louis; “ but on 
a strong probability. Every one is liable 
to make a mistake.” 

The wind freshened a little, and the sail 
drew the bow of the boat down in the 
water, so that it seemed at times as if they 
would have to shorten sail ; but Louis was 
so anxious to reach land before night 
should envelop them, that he would not 
think of it. 

“ It ’s a rocky coast,” he explained. “ I 
can see the breakers now, and we may 
have to swim for it.” 

“ We ’ll be wrecked in the surf.? ” asked 
Warren, anxiously. 

“ We must cling to the boat, whatever 
we do,” Louis responded. “ The waves 
will carry the boat upon the beach, even 
if it does n’t us. She is very light.” 

The prospect ahead was not alluring. 
The nearer they sailed toward the shore, 
the more grim and hard its rocky outlines 
appeared, while at its base roared the surf. 
The wind was blowing the waves toward 
the shore, and by the time they reached 
the rocks they were running high. No 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 135 

boat could approach such a coast without 
being wrecked and pounded to pieces ; 
yet there was no other course for the 
boys. They had to steer the craft to ab- 
solutely known danger, and wreck her upon 
one of the most forbidding coasts of the 
North . American continent. Above the 
line of sea-coast and rocks they could 
see the trees waving, with their foliage 
green and inviting to the eyes, and every 
boy longed, with all his heart, to be up 
there, beyond the reach of the turbulent 
sea. 

As far as the eye could see, the breakers 
were dashing upon a line of sharp head- 
lands and rough beach strewn with rocks. 
In some places the rocks rose directly from 
the water to a height of several hundred 
feet. Against this granite base, the waves 
tumbled with a mighty roar which echoed 
far out to sea. The foam dashed high 
against the cliffs, forming picturesque flash- 
light scenes, which changed and shifted 
with each motion of the restless sea. 

Louis stood up in the stern of his boat, 
scanning the line of coast eagerly and 


136 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

anxiously. In vain he looked for some 
loophole of escape, but nowhere was the 
line of rocks broken. The sea simply 
climbed over small and large rocks to reach 
the beach beyond. The wind was driving 
them swiftly upon the rocks, and the chances 
were that the boat would be dashed to 
pieces in the first encounter. 

“ I don’t like this,” said Frank, firmly. 
“ I ’d rather be on the ice floe. There ’s 
nothing but certain death ahead.” 

Warren and Harold shook their heads. 
They, too, dreaded the wrecking of their 
craft Only Louis remained firm and de- 
termined. 

“It’s too late now,” he replied. “We 
could n’t go back if we wanted to, but we 
don’t. Every one of you prepare to swim 
and get ashore when we strike.” 

They were now approaching so close to 
the rocks that their dark heads, shaggy 
with moss and seaweed, appeared like mon- 
ster sea-lions staring up from the ocean’s 
depth at them. 

“ Tell us when we ’re going to strike ! ” 
shouted Warren, making his voice heard 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 137 

with difficulty above the fearful roar of the 
surf. 

“ I ’m not going to strike until there ’s no 
hope,” replied Louis. “ It will be a hid- 
den rock I ’ll strike, and you can see that 
before I can.” 

Then followed a skilful battling with the 
tide, waves, and wind. The boat rushed 
among the outer lines of rocks visible to 
the naked eye. They were standing in 
deep water, but no one could tell where 
other rocks, a few inches below the surface, 
were located. Louis skilfully guided his 
boat between them. The tides and eddies 
caused by the waves breaking on these 
outer rocks made navigation difficult. 
Again and again the boat was caught in a 
side current and twisted around so that 
the sail, patched up of coats, flapped idly 
in the wind; but Louis managed each time 
to bring the craft around so that she could 
once more scud before the wind. 

Twisting and winding among the sea of 
rocks and breakers, the craft passed the first 
range of rocks, and then plunged among 
the more dangerous line inside. Here the 


ijS The Mysterious Beacon Light 

tops of the rocks did not show above the 
water, except when the waves passed over 
them. Several times the boat grazed a 
jagged rock, careening so far over on her 
side that the boys thought their time had 
come. Finally a huge wave carried them 
directly toward a huge rock, and, in spite 
of the efforts of Louis, the boat passed 
over it. 

“ Now look out !” shouted Louis. “We’re 
going!” 

The boys dropped their sail and held 
firmly to the sides of the boat. The criti- 
cal moment had arrived. 







CHAPTER XIII 


F or a moment the wave carried the 
boat along without injury, and then a 
dull, grating noise underneath indicated 
that the bottom was scraping along on the 
top of the rock. The bow of the boat shot 
far up into the air, where it remained. The 
wave swept on, the swell being followed by 
the trough. But the boat did not descend. 
It twisted a little to the port side, and there 
remained, perched high and dry above the 
crest of the next wave. In this position 
they waited for some time, not one of the 
boys daring to speak. Warren glanced 
down from his high perch, looking with 
awe at the seething water below. So deli- 
cately balanced was the craft on the top of 
the rock that a slight movement of any one 
of its occupants would have served to dis- 
lodge it. 

“ We Ve caught on the rock ! ” exclaimed 
Louis. “ But the next wave will carry us 
off. Look out then for a capsize ! ” 


140 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

But the next wave was a small one, and 
the crest of it merely lapped the stern and 
sides of the boat without disturbing its 
equilibrium. The second proved equally 
ineffective. The wave that had carried 
them so far up had been unusually large, 
and few others could approach it in size 
and momentum. 

Louis, realizing this, looked seaward, 
watching the different swells as they 
formed to make their final dash against 
the rocks. Some were broken and shat- 
tered by the outside rocks, and others 
were caught by counter-currents and 
eddies which broke their force. When 
they reached the identical rock on which 
the craft was caught, they were unable to 
make an effective demonstration of their 
power. The tide was falling, and Louis 
grew more apprehensive. He did not fancy 
being wrecked in this fashion. All around 
was deep water, and ahead of them were 
other treacherous shoals and rocks to pass. 

“ Are we going to stay here all night ” 
asked Harold, turning toward Louis for a 
reply. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 141 

“ Not if I can help it,” was the reply. 
“ The tide is falling, but we must get off 
somehow.” 

“ If the tide is falling, why are n’t we 
safer here than in those waves?” asked 
Frank. “ I prefer to be here rather than 
down there,” pointing to the rocks and 
water below. 

“You could starve here as well as on 
the ice floe,” Louis answered shortly. 

“ So can you on the shore. I don’t see 
anything to eat.” 

There was no answering this argument. 
Night was falling rapidly around them, 
and Louis was soon convinced that the 
giant wave which had landed their boat 
on the high rock was the last of a series of 
big ones. No others would probably reach 
them until another tide. Meanwhile, the 
storm at sea would subside and the power 
of the breakers grow less. In that event 
they might after all reach the shore with- 
out being shipwrecked. In a calm sea he 
might pilot his boat safely through the 
rocks and breakers without wrecking it. 

Somewhat consoled with this thought, 


142 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

he proceeded to study the peculiar posi- 
tion in which they were placed. Cau- 
tiously looking over the side of the craft, 
he could see that the top of the rock was 
cut off on a slant of about forty-five de- 
grees. The boat was caught midway on 
this incline, with the bow resting on the 
upper part of the rock, and the stern 
down. It was standing on a sort of natural 
cradle, but balanced so nicely that a slight 
jar might cause it to topple over. 

“ This won’t be a very comfortable bed 
for the night,” he said, explaining their 
position. “ If Frank forgets himself in 
his sleep and rolls over on Warren’s side, 
he ’ll topple the boat over into the sea, 
and we ’ll all be lost.” 

“ Then I move that Frank be made to 
stay awake all night,” Warren said. “ He ’s 
a great roller in his sleep.” 

“ I think we ’ll all have to sleep sitting 
up,” Harold added. “ If I move an inch 
the boat begins to rock.” 

“ Harold is about right. We ’ll all keep 
watch together.” 

“ I don’t think I could sleep much with- 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 143 

out something to eat, anyway,” Warren 
replied. “ I never knew what hunger was 
before.” 

“You’ll feel hungrier before you find 
anything to eat,” answered Louis, gloomily. 

“ What can we do to get anything to 
eat when we land ” asked Frank. 

“ Dig clams and hunt for oysters and 
snails.” 

The suggestion of clams and oysters 
brought a new longing to the minds of 
the boys. Even Frank began to measure 
the distance between their craft and the 
shore with his eyes, as if anxious to make 
an early landing. 

“ Do clams and oysters grow up here } ” 
he asked meditatively. “ If they don’t, we 
can find mussels and crabs, or possibly 
some scallops. Any kind of fish, in fact, 
would suit me.” 

“ I would n’t be very particular myself.” 

The sea around continued its booming 
and roaring, the waves breaking all along 
the coast on the rocks ; but it was evident 
that the tide was falling rapidly. The 
crests of the waves came less and less near 


144 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the boat. Finally the rock was exposed 
several feet below the bottom of the boat. 
Louis looked over the side of the craft, as 
if anxious to climb down and investigate 
their surroundings below; but darkness 
was settling down so rapidly that it was 
unwise to make such a venture. 

“ Well, we ’re in for an all-night siege of 
it,” he said, as he looked up. “We may as 
well take turns watching and sleeping. 
We ’ll need all our strength in the morning, 
when we attempt to land.” 

“ I can’t sleep,” said Frank. 

“ Then Frank and I will take the first 
watch, and Warren and Harold can sleep 
now.” 

“I can’t sleep either,” Warren answered. 

“ Oh, in that case I ’ll take my sleep 
now,” Louis replied. “ Harold, turn over 
and forget that you ’re perched sky-high 
on a rock over the sea off the Labrador 
coast. Dream of old Sheffield, and I ’ll do 
the same.” 

“ All right, Louis. I ’ll try it.” 

But in the darkness he made a grimace 
that seemed to belie his words. There 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 145 

was not much sleep in any of them ; but 
Louis was more of a sailor and knew the 
need of husbanding his strength. He 
placed his head on the side of the boat, 
and in a few moments he was in dream- 
land. He heard the whisperings of his 
three companions in the bow of the boat, 
but their murmurings were, in time, blended 
with the visions of his dreams. 

Louis was a sound sleeper under almost 
any circumstances, and his hard day’s work 
and exhaustion from lack of food made 
his slumbers so profound that he did not 
heed the roaring of the waves. In a few 
moments Harold placed his head on his 
hands, and sleep swallowed up all his 
worries and troubles. 

The two left on watch continued their 
conversation in the bow of the boat for 
some time, and then they dreamily fell to 
listening to the murmuring of the waves. 
The tide had fallen down so that rocks 
were bare all around them. The moon 
appeared from between scudding clouds, 
and the midnight aspect of the sea was not 
forbidding. After the storm it looked cold 
10 


146 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

but picturesque, while the angry waves had 
their worst features hidden from view by 
darkness. Neither of the two boys realized 
the importance of the duty given to him. 
There was little to watch, for that matter, 
and when their eyelids drooped they did 
not dream of the guilt of the soldier who 
slept on his post. 

But slowly and surely the tide which 
had receded so far from the rocks now re- 
turned, creeping up inch by inch, while 
the two watchers slept on their post. Each 
succeeding wave covered a higher mark 
on the rocks, and lapped a little nearer to 
the edge of the stranded boat. All was 
quiet and peaceful then. The storm had 
subsided ; the wind had ceased to howl, 
and the waves alone indicated the restless 
character of the sea. These continued to 
roll in from the ocean, and, as they reached 
the rocks, they broke over them with loud 
roaring. 

Louis, unconscious of danger, and not 
charging his mind with it, slept on peace- 
fully, not thinking that the watch would be 
prolonged much after midnight. The first 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 147 

wave to strike the boat merely lapped 
gently over a part of the keel, and then 
rushed on to join its comrades. The suc- 
ceeding waves gently raised the stern of 
the craft, but not high enough to float it 
The tide was dangerously high now, and 
the boat swung uneasily around on the crest 
of each billow. But still the exhausted 
boys slept 

Finally, a huge wave crept in from the 
open sea, gaining terrific momentum as it 
approached the shore. It broke with a 
wild roar on the outer line of rocks, and 
then dashed up against the stranded craft 
It lifted the boat upon its crest as easily 
as if it had been a feather, and, twisting it 
around and around, flung it forward in a 
straight line for the beach. 

Louis felt the strange upward motion, 
and, opening his eyes, he gave a yell that 
awakened every sleeper. The warning was 
given none too soon. The boat was now 
in the maw of the huge wave, twisting, 
whirling, and bobbing about in the most 
dizzy manner. The four boys tried to 
gain their feet, but they could not. Then, 


148 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

as they glared with wild eyes at the scene, 
the craft was quickly toppled over, and in 
another moment the green water received 
the four sailors. Struggling in its grasp, 
they felt themselves buffeted around with 
ruthless energy, until, bruised and half 
drowned, they were washed into shoaler 
water, where, at each retreat of the waves, 
they could touch bottom. 

When the boat was first overturned, 
Louis tried to cling to its sides, shouting 
to his companions to do the same ; but his 
words of warning were smothered by a 
wave which completely overwhelmed him. 
He lost his hold of the boat, and then 
clutched blindly around in the darkness to 
find it again. His arms suddenly clasped 
an object which proved to be Harold. 
The two boys clung together thereafter, 
with a clutch that could not be loosened. 

The waves carried them over another 
rock, which hurt and scarred their legs ; 
but they could not stop in their headlong 
journey toward the beach. They were 
finally released from the relentless fury of 
the wave in water just above their waists. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 149 

Louis realized their position first, and, 
clearing his mouth of water, he said to his 
companion : 

“Swim in with the next wave, and then 
crawl for the shore ! ” 

The next wave was upon them before 
he had hardly finished his words, and the 
two leaped upward, to swim along on its 
crest. With what appeared like incredu- 
lous speed, they were hurried along and 
flung with considerable force upon the 
beach of sand and stones. The wave re- 
treated, and they stood only knee-deep in 
water. 

“ Thank God, we are safe ! ” Louis said, 
with a sob in his throat. 

Then, in almost the same breath, he 
gasped : “ But where are Frank and 

Warren ? ” 

Harold was so exhausted with the strug- 
gle in the water that he could not reply. 
He staggered upon the beach, and flung 
himself down on the sand. Louis tried 
hard to catch a glimpse of either one of 
the other two shipwrecks. Once he saw 
a dark object riding the crest of a wave, 


150 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

and he rushed down the beach toward it ; 
but a moment later he saw that it was 
their wrecked boat, tossed about in the 
waves. 

Returning to where Harold lay, he sud- 
denly saw what appeared to be a rock on 
the edge of the water. He was about to 
pass this, when, in the clear moonlight, he 
saw that it was the figure of a human being. 
Hurrying to its side, he placed a hand on 
the head, and turned it over. The white 
face of Warren stared up at him with 
blank, open eyes. 

Louis turned the prostrate body over, 
and shook him. “ Warren ! ” he shouted 
in his ears. “ Warren ! Are you dead ? ” 

But the sightless eyes only stared 
dumbly at him. Still unwilling to believe 
that he was dead, Louis shouted to Harold : 

“ Come here and help me revive War- 
ren ! Quick, Harold, or it will be too 
late ! ” 

Stimulated to action by this call for 
help, Harold rose with difficulty from his 
position on the beach, and hurried to the 
rescue. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 151 

“ He still lives,” Louis said. “ I felt his 
heart beating. We must bring him to.” 

They toiled over him for half an hour, 
rolling and pounding him to get the water 
out of his lungs, and finally, stripping him, 
they rubbed his body and limbs until their 
muscles ached with the exertion. Their 
efforts were finally rewarded by a sigh, 
and a few moments later the eyes which 
stared at them recognized them. 

“ Are we all safe.^ ” Warren murmured. 

“ All except Frank,” Louis answered. 
“ Did you see him after the accident ? ” 

“Yes, he was clinging to the boat. I 
was washed off, and he was still clinging 
to it.” 

“ Then he may be saved yet. The boat 
is coming in down the shore. We ’ll go 
to his aid, if he ’s on it” 


CHAPTER XIV 


M orning dawned bright and clear 
on the beach. The three ship- 
wrecked watchers had waited in vain for 
their boat to reach the shore. As if car- 
ried down the coast by some contrary 
current, it had floated on the top of the 
waves all night, approaching and reced- 
ing from the shore, but never quite com- 
ing within the reach of the three expectant 
watchers. Whether Frank was on it was 
somewhat conjectural. As it bobbed up 
and down, a black object could be seen on 
the opposite side, but the moonlight never 
gave them a good view of it. 

When morning made the surface of the 
sea plain and distinct to their view, the 
scene had been shifted nearly five miles 
away from the point where the shipwreck 
had first occurred. The current was stead- 
ily working down the coast, and Louis 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 153 

feared that another tide might carry the 
craft beyond their reach. 

But fortunately a stiff breeze sprang up 
from the ocean, and this slowly drifted the 
overturned boat toward the beach. Half 
a mile ahead the boys discovered a range 
of low-lying rocks which seemed to pro- 
trude a long distance out in the water. If 
the boat did not drift farther away from 
the shore, it could not pass these rocks 
without touching them. 

“We must try to stop it down there,” 
Louis advised, pointing to the rocks. 
“ We must get out on them and wait for 
her.” 

Running briskly down the beach, they 
reached the rocks long before the boat, and, 
Louis leading the way, they stepped cau- 
tiously from rock to rock. The water 
surged between the rocks, and raced as 
through a mill-canal. The leap from rock 
to rock was sometimes wide and threaten- 
ing, but, unmindful of their own danger, 
the three boys hurried along. Before the 
boat was abreast of the rocks, they were 
grouped on the extreme end of the line. 


154 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Warren suddenly exclaimed, shading his 
eyes with his hands : 

“There is Frank! Seel he raised a 
hand from the boat I ” 

The others saw the signal, too, and 
their eagerness to intercept the boat was 
increased tenfold. It seemed incredulous 
that Frank had been half in the water and 
half out of it all night, and could still raise 
a hand above his head. 

“ We must do something to save him,” 
Harold said. 

But what that something was he could 
not say. Neither could Warren nor 
Louis. They were at the end of their 
resources. If the boat should drift past 
the rocks, they had no possible means of 
stopping it. They could not swim out to 
it, nor throw a line to it. They were as 
helpless in their emergency as any three 
boys possibly could be. They glanced up 
occasionally at the rugged barrenness of the 
coast, as if hoping and expecting that some 
one would come to their relief from that 
quarter. But they might be a thousand 
miles from any human habitation or person. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 155 

The tide rippled around the edge of the 
rocks with great force, and, if the boat 
once was caught in the current, it would be 
quickly carried out farther from the shore. 
Louis realized the danger, and braced him- 
self for action, stepping as far out on the 
last rock as possible. The boat struck 
the rocks a dozen feet inside, and re- 
bounded ; but three pairs of hands grasped 
it. Instead of holding the boat, every one 
of the boys was jerked from his position 
and pulled into deep water. 

“ Swim with one hand ! ” shouted Louis. 
“ Swim for the rocks ! ” 

With all their strength and energy the 
boys swam with one arm, while they clung 
to the boat with the other. The tide was 
running against them, but Louis felt one 
foot touch a rock near the surface, and 
with the momentum gained by this, he 
shoved the head of the boat straight be- 
tween two of the outer rocks. The water 
pouring between these rocks partly coun- 
teracted the outward flow of the current, 
and in another moment the boat was 
securely wedged between them. 


156 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Climbing upon the rocks, the boys made 
doubly sure of their boat by forcing half 
her length into the narrow space. The 
water boiled and surged around the craft, 
but it could not dislodge her. During all 
these proceedings Frank clung to the stern 
of the boat, to which he had managed to 
lash himself with a loose rope. He was 
still out in deep water, but Louis quickly 
crawled over the keel of the boat and 
grasped him by the arms. 

“ Let go, Frank,” he said. “ I have you 
now.” 

Willingly the hands relaxed their grip. 
They were blue with the cold, and the 
fingers were hard and knotted with 
cramps. The long night in the water had 
nearly exhausted Frank, but he was still 
game. While he allowed Louis to pull him 
slowly through the water to the rocks, he 
tried to smile and make some light re- 
mark. But he was really more exhausted 
than he supposed. When he attempted to 
climb upon the rocks, his legs weakened, 
and he stumbled. 

“You can’t walk, Frank,” Warren said. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 157 

“ I don’t see how we can get you ashore 
yet. We can’t carry you over these 
rocks.” 

“No, but we can tow him in the boat,” 
Louis answered. “ He can go to land 
in some sort of comfort.” 

After depositing Frank comfortably on 
the dry rocks, to rest and bask in the 
sun, the three young sailors proceeded, 
under the directions of Louis, to turn the 
boat right side up. First, the painter in 
the bow was securely tied to one of the 
rocks, and then, with the help of the tide, 
she was swung broadside upon the rocks. 
In this position it was an easy matter to 
turn her over without taking in much 
water. 

“Now, Frank, let us help you in, and 
we ’ll play canal boat with you. We ’ll 
make good tow horses or mules.” 

With difficulty the exhausted boy was 
helped into the boat, and then, leaping 
from rock to rock, the procession started 
for shore. When the boat finally grated 
on the sand, they gave vent to three 
cheers. They had landed safely, after a 


158 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

series of accidents and experiences suf- 
ficient to make hardened sailors turn pale 
with fear and dread. 

“ It seems like an age since we left the 
Norther 7 i Star',' said Louis. “ I wonder 
where she is anyway ! ” 

“ I ’m wondering more where our break- 
fast is coming from,” Warren replied. 

“ From the sand under your feet,” Louis 
answered. “ Let me show you.” 

He dug down in the sand with a shell, 
and in a few moments hauled up a 
clam which had been buried in the sand. 
This he proceeded to open by cracking 
the shells with two stones. Then, offer- 
ing the contents to Frank, he said : 

“ Here, you need some food more than 
we do. I ’ll wait for the next course.” 

Warren and Harold had each picked 
up clam-shells, and the three were speed- 
ily engaged in digging for clams. They 
were plentiful on the coast, and mixed 
with them were snails and scallops, which 
the boys ate greedily in their raw state. 
This breakfast much refreshed them. 

“ Now we must find water,” Frank said. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 159 

“for we lost all our rain-water when the 
boat was turned over.” 

“We’ll find a spring or stream some- 
where,” Louis said. “ I don’t think we ’ll 
die from thirst here on the land.” 

“ Let Harold stay here with Frank, 
while we go to the top of the cliffs to ex- 
plore,” Warren said. “ When we reach 
the top we ’ll wave to you, and, if we find 
anything good, we ’ll shout.” 

“ Don’t be gone long, then,” Frank re- 
plied, looking up anxiously at the summit 
of the cliffs. “ We ’ll be crazy to know what 
kind of country you discover back of you.” 

“ We ’ll report at once,” Louis promised. 

The cliffs were steep and rocky, and 
the two climbers had to walk along their 
sides for some distance before they could 
find any place for a foothold. A deep 
cleft had been cut out by the sea, which, 
at some time, had battered against the 
rocks until they had yielded and split 
asunder. The water had formed a small 
river here, and by means of climbing 
from one boulder to another, clinging to 
stunted growths of cedar and bushes, the 


i6o The Mysterious Beacon Light 

boys were enabled to work their way 
slowly toward the summit. 

As they proceeded, their footpath grew 
steeper and more rugged, and more than 
once they were half inclined to aban- 
don the climb. Finally, Louis caught a 
glimpse of the green trees and bushes 
above his head, and shouted: “We’re 
nearly there, Warren.” 

The line of vegetation was reached, 
and for the first time the climbers rested 
and looked around them. Down on the 
beach they could see their two com- 
panions resting on the sand, and, beyond 
them, the line of coast and the great blue 
sea. As far as they could see there was 
no appearance of a vessel on the ocean. 
Louis stood up and gazed around anx- 
iously from one point of the compass to 
the other. The thought of his father’s 
fate worried him. Had the Northern 
Star been able to ride out the storm safely, 
or had she been wrecked If she was safe 
and sound, he knew that she would return 
to the scene of their mishap as soon as 
possible. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light i6i 

“ She must have been blown far out to 
sea,” he mused aloud. 

“ Who — what ? — the iceberg ? ” asked 
Warren, not able to follow his thoughts. 
“ Why, no, it has n’t. I saw the top of it 
over there. See, is n’t that the ice floe, or 
what ’s left of it ? ” 

“Yes, it is,” Louis answered. “But I 
was thinking of the Norther^i Star'' 

“ Do you think she ’s safe, and will she 
pick us up soon } ” 

“ I don’t know, but I hope so. How- 
ever, it won’t do us any good to worry 
about it. Come, we must reach the top 
of this cliff, and see what kind of a country 
is back of us.” 

They started up and climbed rapidly 
through the mass of bushes and trees. 
The ascent was easy now, for the vegeta- 
tion was growing on the edge of the cliff, 
and the incline was not difficult. Within 
ten minutes they stood on the summit and 
waved their hands to the two companions 
on the beach. Behind them was one 
dense line of woods, which covered a roll- 
ing, hilly country that gradually backed 


1 62 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

up to the line of mountains. There was 
absolute desolation and solitude on all 
sides. No habitation might be within 
hundreds of miles. The coast was one of 
the loneliest on the North Atlantic. Louis 
expected this, and was not disappointed. 

“ We Ve got to look after ourselves for 
a time yet,” he said. “ There ’s no one to 
help us. We ’ll put up our first signal of 
distress, however, and, if any ship passes 
this way, a boat will be sent ashore. I 
imagine sailors are wrecked on this coast a 
good many times in the course of a year.” 

Ripping out the lining of his vest, Louis 
proceeded to secure it to the highest 
branch of one of the tall, storm-scarred 
cedars which towered far above all other 
points on the cliff. When this flag of dis- 
tress was securely fastened on the top of 
the tree, he descended, and the two pro- 
ceeded to make the descent. 

When they reached the beach below, 
Harold ran toward them, showing unusual 
excitement in his voice and actions. 

“ Somebody has been on this beach,” he 
shouted. “ I ’ve found their camp-fire.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 163 

Louis and Warren broke into a run. 
Harold beckoned them to a point above 
high water-mark, where stones had been 
piled in a semicircle. Here were the 
charred remains of driftwood that had 
been used for a fire. Remains of clam- 
shells and fish-bones were also visible on 
every side. Louis picked up some of the 
dead coals, and examined and smelt of 
them critically. 

“Yes, this fire was burning recently,” 
he said finally. “ It was put out by that 
storm which wrecked us.” 

“ Then help is not so far away, after all,” 
Warren said. 

“ Not unless they are shipwrecked 
sailors like ourselves, or cannibals like 
those which Robinson Crusoe found. It 
might be in order to hunt for their foot- 
prints in the sand.” 

“ The recent storm has washed them 
out. We can’t do that.” 

“ Then we can make a hunt for the 
men, or keep on the lookout all the time. 
They ’ll come down here again.” 

“ But if they were — ” stammered Har- 


164 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

old. “No, I didn’t mean cannibals, but 
half-starved wild men, or — ” 

The boys laughed at this hesitating ex- 
pression of fear, but there was a nervous 
ring to their laugh which was not very 
reassuring to Harold. 


CHAPTER XV 


T he knowledge that others were not 
far from them on the lonely beach 
gave a new element of interest to their 
life. Whatever they attempted to do was 
with half an eye on the possible chance 
that they would suddenly be discovered. 
The charred sticks of wood piled around 
the circle of stones were not the only evi- 
dence that the beach had been recently 
inhabited. While wandering around in 
search of clams and driftwood, Harold dis- 
covered an old sailor’s handkerchief which 
had been knotted as if to hold something. 
This second piece of evidence was carried 
triumphantly back to camp. 

“ This shows that they are sailors,” Louis 
said. “ They have probably been ship- 
wrecked like us, and they are living some- 
where back in the woods.” 

“ If they are near us, they should see our 
signal flying from the top of the tree,” 


1 66 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Frank suggested, pointing up at the flut- 
tering cloth. 

“ Yes, they ’ll see it, and any day we may 
expect a visit from them.” 

During the rest of the day, the four 
castaways, having beached their boat, pre- 
pared to build a sort of rude hut as a 
shelter from the cold night or possible 
rain. Frank was still too weak and ex- 
hausted to walk far, and all attempts to 
explore inland or down the coast were 
abandoned for the present. In the after- 
noon, a stream of water emptying into 
the ocean was found trickling down the 
rocks, and all fear of suffering from lack 
of water was banished. By emptying their 
pockets the boys discovered that they had 
nearly a full box of matches among them. 
These were carefully spread out in the 
sun to dry. By evening they were ready 
to use, and Frank succeeded in making 
a fire after the third attempt. 

Driftwood was plentiful on the beach, 
and a roaring fire was soon blazing 
away. As a matter of .economy with 
their matches, they decided to keep the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 167 

fire going all night, piling driftwood on 
it as it burnt low. 

“ It will help as a signal for passing 
vessels,” Louis said ; “ and, besides, it will 
make it seem less lonely.” 

Their supply of food was further in- 
creased by the discovery of a small arm 
of the sea, which washed over a low ridge 
of sand at high tide, and carried fish with 
it, leaving them stranded in shoal water as 
the tide retreated. In this small pond, 
scarcely a foot deep at low water, the 
boys found scores of small and large fish 
imprisoned. By driving them up toward 
one end of the shallow pond, they were 
able to catch one after considerable 
trouble. 

Then Warren said: “ I have a better 
way than that. We ’ll drain this pond, 
and capture all we want.” 

“ Eureka, Warren, you ’re a genius ! ” 
shouted Frank. “You should copyright 
that idea.” 

The level of the pond was a couple of 
feet above the surface of the ocean. The 
boys cut a drain at the lowest point. 


1 68 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

and proceeded to build a dam through 
which the water could escape, but no 
fish. When they started the water to 
flow through the dam, the fish gradually 
moved toward it, but as they were brought 
up against the shoals, they retreated in 
terror. The water slowly but surely 
drained off, until there was scarcely a 
foot left at the deepest point. In this 
shallow pond were collected enough fish 
to last the boys for a week. Flopping 
around, they tried in vain to escape their 
pursuers. The boys picked them up 
without difficulty. 

“ See here, we won’t be able to eat all 
of these,” Louis said ; “ and it ’s too much 
like murder to kill them for nothing. 
Suppose we take what we want, and 
throw the others in the sea before they 
die.” 

“ But how about to-morrow and the 
next day ? ” 

“ Oh, we ’ll keep enough for two days’ 
provisions, and then I think we can catch 
more in the same way.” 

“ All right ! Here goes my big fellow ! ” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 169 

It was the biggest catch of fish the 
boys had ever seen, and, as they carried 
most of them and threw them back into 
the ocean, they experienced more actual 
pleasure than if they were catching them 
with hooks. The fish, glad of their es- 
cape, disappeared like flashes of light 
into the ocean. 

“ Glad to get home again,” muttered 
Harold. 

“ Yes, next to getting there yourself 
is the pleasure of seeing somebody else, 
even if it is a fish,” replied Warren, with 
an unconscious sigh. 

Usually this remark would have called 
forth cries of derision, for there were un- 
mistakable indications of intense home- 
sickness in the voice and words ; but not 
one of the boys -replied to it. Instead, 
they turned silently around and walked 
back to their temporary camp. When 
they reached it, Louis proceeded to scale 
and clean the fish with great energy. 
Frank stirred the embers of the fire with 
his stick, and Harold and Warren looked 


on. 


lyo The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Want any help, Louis ? ” asked War- 
ren, hands in pocket and eyes staring 
hard at the coals of fire. 

“No, I can clean enough for this meal, 
but you ’d better look on and learn how. 
Some day you may not have me to do it 
for you.” 

“ Oh, we’ll help, if you put it that way,” 
retorted Warren, nettled at the sharpness 
of the reply, for his thoughts were still of 
home. 

Louis grunted, but made no answer, 
cleaning and scraping away with his knife. 
Warren still looked gloomily down at the 
fire, and Frank fed it in silence, while he 
poked at the coals with his stick. 

One of the largest fish was cleaned and 
flung down on a slab of stone which the 
boys had selected for a frying-pan. “You 
can cook that one on the hot stone,” 
Louis said ; “ but I ’ll have mine spitted, 
and broiled on a stick.” 

Suiting action to his words, he pro- 
ceeded to whittle out a stout stick from 
a piece of driftwood, and, running this 
through the next fish lengthwise, he held 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 17 1 

it up before the flames. Then the odor 
of the cooking fish filled their nostrils, 
and they sniffed long and delightedly, 
drawing unconsciously nearer the fire. 
Frank’s fish was also sizzling on its hot 
slab of stone, and when he attempted to 
turn it with a flat stick the meat stuck to 
it, and filled the air with an aroma that 
appealed to every hungry lad. Warren 
suddenly forgot his memories of home, 
and Harold no longer watched, with ab- 
sent-minded eyes, the process before him. 

“ This makes me hungry,” the former 
said suddenly, squatting himself on the 
sand near the fire. “ I never knew fish 
to have such an odor and fragrance 
before.” 

Harold laughed, and said : “ Why, up at 
Sheffield, Warren, you always hated fish 
day, and said any kind of fish made you 
sick.” 

“ But this is n’t Sheffield,” was the 
prompt answer. 

“No, it’s a new Robinson Crusoe’s 
island,” Frank added. 

“ Well, for my part,” Louis began, strip- 


172 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

ping off a piece of his broiled fish, “ I think 
it ’s better than Robinson Crusoe’s island. 
We are four instead of one, and we have 
no Man Friday or canni — ” 

With his mouth stuffed full of fish, and 
his sentence half finished, Louis stared in 
blank amazement over the heads of his 
companions. All three were so busy 
eating their share of the fish that they 
did not notice the sudden change in the 
appearance of his face. 

“ Well, go on,” Frank said without look- 
ing up. “ What bright comparison were 
you going to make with this inhospitable 
shore and Robinson — ” 

Frank also stopped midway in his sen- 
tence and stared at Louis. “What is it.f^” 
he asked, seeing the expression of his 
companion’s face. Warren and Harold 
also glanced up, and then all three fol- 
lowed with their eyes the direction in 
which Louis was staring. 

Down on the beach, a hundred yards 
away, was drawn up their boat, and by it 
stood four queer-looking creatures. No 
description of cannibals could quite apply 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 173 

to these men. They were clad in the most 
outlandish garb known to savagery or 
civilization. A bear-skin hung over the 
shoulders of one, and dragged below the 
knees, without belt or other circlet to hold 
it in at the waist. Another had parts of 
a sealskin, patched to make rude sort of 
garments; but the skin had been rudely 
taken from the animal, leaving clots of 
blood and flesh clinging to it. The other 
two men were dressed in the skins of foxes 
and ermines, with a few patches of blue 
flannel and black cloth, worn greasy and 
threadbare. All four had long, unkempt 
hair and beards ; no shoes were on their 
feet, and their eyes were sharp and wolfish. 

They were strong, muscular men, the 
largest being considerable over six feet, 
and the others not many inches shorter. 
They were dark and bronzed, their bare 
arms and legs gleaming almost like brass 
in the sunlight. In some mysterious way 
they had appeared on the beach while the 
boys were cooking their dinner, and they 
stood grouped around the boat, as if de- 
bating whether to launch it or not. Louis 


174 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

and the others stared in silence at the four 
men, none caring to express the thoughts 
which were running in their minds. 

When the men glanced up at the camp- 
fire, and caught the odor of cooking fish 
they turned and walked toward it. Like 
ravenous wild animals on the scent of 
game, they hurried along the beach, and 
approached the group of frightened boys, 
their wolfish eyes and teeth gleaming in 
the sunlight. Warren and Harold made 
a motion as if to rise and run ; but Louis 
placed a restraining hand on them, and 
said softly: 

“ Don’t move ! Let them think we ’re 
not afraid of them. We must all stick 
together ! ” 


CHAPTER XVI 


W ITH quaking hearts, the four boys 
watched the approaching strangers. 
A nearer view did not modify their first 
unsightly appearance. Their half-naked 
bodies were more repulsive on a nearer 
view, and their eyes, half concealed from 
view by heavy eyebrows, were not reas- 
suring. Their shifty, stealthy glances be- 
trayed natures that were not to be trusted. 
Their appearance on the isolated beach 
was a mystery to the boys, and Louis real- 
ized, more than the others, that there was 
something unusual and inexplicable in 
their dwelling in such a place. They were 
not ordinary shipwrecked sailors, nor seal- 
ers from St. John’s, who were frequently 
caught in their small boats by ice floes 
and cast upon the coast during stormy 
weather. There was little of the sailor 
or sealer in their clothes or general 
appearance. 


176 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Without the formality of an introduc- 
tion, the four men stepped close up to the 
fire, and the tallest, with a grunt of satis- 
faction, leaned over and picked up some 
of the cooked fish. Holding this in both 
hands, he proceeded to rend and tear it 
to shreds with his teeth. At first Louis 
decided to resent this, but in the next 
breath he changed his mind. 

“ Oh, I see you are half starved,” he 
said, picking up the piece of driftwood 
which had served as a plate. “ Here is 
enough for all of you.” 

Holding the flat board so that the first 
man could not reach it, he passed the 
broiled fish around to his three compan- 
ions. Their eyes lighted up with greed 
and hunger. Three pairs of hands quickly 
swept the board clean of fish, and, like 
ravenous wolves eating their dinner, they 
snapped and snarled away as they devoured 
the food. When they had finished, they 
looked around for more. 

“ That is all we have,” Louis said. “ But 
if you are still hungry we can catch more 
for you on the next tide.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 177 

“ Yes, get more for us,” grunted the 
tallest of the four. “ We ’re very hungry. 
Got matches to make the fire ? ” 

The man proceeded to run a hand into 
the pocket of Louis, who stepped back, and 
said sharply : “ The matches are not there.” 

“ Where then ? Our matches nearly 
gone, and we want more. Where are 
they.?” 

Louis shook his head. The man glared 
hard at him. 

“ Where are the matches .? ” he de- 
manded, stepping up to Louis in a threat- 
ening manner. 

“ I cannot tell you,” was the prompt but 
firm reply. 

There was a snarl of anger from the 
man ; but Louis was unflinching, and did 
not retreat when the man approached. 

Possibly a quarrel and fight would have 
developed then and there had not the 
other men stepped up to their leader and 
pulled him away. 

“ Don’t do that,” they said. “ He ’ll get 
us more fish soon, and cook it for us ; if 
you hurt him, he won’t.” 

12 


178 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

This logic appealed to the man’s stom- 
ach, and he retreated with a few parting 
snarls and grunts. With a stick he turned 
over the coals of fire and searched in them 
for any farther vestiges of a meal. Louis 
and his companions stood grouped to- 
gether, while the four half-wild men were 
standing opposite. The boys assumed an 
attitude of quiet defiance. Frank, almost 
unconsciously, clasped the heavy stick with 
which he had been stirring the fire, while 
Warren held a heavy stone in his right 
hand. Louis was for pacifying the men, 
but his hands were folded tightly over his 
shirt, in whose folds was concealed the 
only knife the boys owned. 

When the strange visitors had finished 
their inspection of the fire and the camp, 
they turned once more upon the boys. 

“ Where did you come from ? ” one of 
them asked. “ How did you get here ? 
Shipwrecked } ” 

“We were lost from our ship on a 
cake of ice, and we were driven ashore 
in our small boat,” Louis responded 
promptly. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 179 

“ Was the ship wrecked ? ” asked the 
leader of the group. 

“ No, it was blown out to sea by the 
storm. We expect it back any day or 
hour.” 

The men turned their eyes toward the 
ocean, and scanned the horizon in every 
direction. Then the leader spoke again, 
pointing up to the flag flying from the 
top of the cliff. 

“ That your signal ? ” he asked. 

Louis nodded. 

“You expect the ship to see that ? You 
can’t see that hill five miles away. You 
want to put it up on that point where our 
camp is.” 

Louis followed the direction of the 
man’s finger, and saw in the distance a 
much higher cliff which towered several 
hundred feet above the one under which 
they stood. 

“You have a camp there ” he asked, 
taking his turn to ask questions. 

The man nodded affirmatively. 

“ Where did you come from } ” Louis 
persisted. 


i8o The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ We were shipwrecked here/’ 

“When? Not lately?” added Louis, 
noting the man’s dress. “ I should say 
that you had been living in this lonely 
region for years.” 

The man looked suspiciously at him, 
and then replied: 

“ Yes, two years. We were wrecked 
then, and we ’ve lived here ever since.” 

“ Two years ? And never rescued ? ” 

There was a note of alarm and incre- 
dulity in the voice. Could it be possible 
that their fate was to be similar ? Were 
they to be banished to this lonely part of 
the coast for two long years, without see- 
ing friends or relatives ? 

The man apparently saw the boy’s fear, 
and he grinned, as he added : “ Yes, two 
years, and we ’ll stay two years more. 
Ships never touch this part of the coast. 
And you ’ll have to live on raw food and 
berries. You can’t buy matches up here.” 

Louis appreciated immediately the man’s 
effort to secure the few matches in his pos- 
session. The taste of cooked food had 
aroused their old fear. They were now 


The Mysterious Beacon Light i8i 

ready to commit murder to get possession 
of the matches; but Louis was equally 
determined that they should not rob him. 

“ But we can save the few we have,” he 
replied. 

“Not if you make a fire every day to 
cook your food.” 

“ We don’t intend to. We shall keep 
this fire going all the time. If it goes out, 
then we can make no other.” 

“ What ! You got no more matches.'^ ” 
demanded the man, sharply. 

“ Not to waste,” Louis answered calmly. 

Once more the old cupidity and fierce- 
ness entered the eyes of the man, and he 
seemed to sway between an inclination to 
pounce upon Louis and rob him of his 
precious possessions, and a strong desire 
to control himself in the interest of peace. 
Louis, wishing to change the subject, said 
quickly : 

“ Are you men not from St. John’s I 
think I have heard of your ship. It was 
wrecked somewhere off this coast, and 
there were — ” 

This speech suddenly created a sen- 


1 82 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

sation among the men. With a sudden 
new interest in other things, they turned 
and walked toward the ocean, muttering 
some denial that they ever hailed from St. 
John’s or any other provincial city. When 
half-way down to the edge of the water, 
the leader stopped, and called back: 

“We ’ll come back when you have 
more fish cooked for us.” 

Then, without leave or permission, they 
stalked down to the edge of the water and 
proceeded to launch the boat of the North- 
ern Star, which the boys had saved with 
such difficulty. 

“ They are stealing our boat,” said War- 
ren. “ Let us stop them.” 

Frank and Harold were inclined to join 
Warren in a struggle for their rights, but 
Louis placed a restraining hand on them 
once more, and said : “ No, no. We don’t 
want a fight, if we can help it.” 

“ But they can’t take our boat,” pro- 
tested Warren. 

“ They said they would come back in a 
short time. It is time enough then to 
decide to fight for our rights.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 183 

The boys quieted down a little, but they 
were far from feeling satisfied. When the 
men finally launched the boat, and started 
to row it down the line of surf with the 
rude oars, which the boys had picked up 
on the beach, Warren turned in disgust 
to say: 

“ It ’s a shame to let them go off like 
that, Louis. They think we are afraid 
of them ! ” 

“ Well, are n’t we, a little ? ” Louis re- 
plied with a smile. “ I confess I don’t 
know what to make of them. They have 
certainly been shipwrecked here, but so 
long ago that they have almost degenerated 
into savages. They are a queer lot, and 
I ’m afraid a dangerous crowd. There is 
nothing up here to make them afraid of 
killing us as they please. If we should get 
into trouble with them, we would not have 
much show. ” 

“ Then you think our best plan is to es- 
cape — to leave here before they return ? ” 
asked Frank, anxiously. 

“ I would advise that ordinarily. But we 
can’t go now. They would soon track 


184 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

and overtake us. For the present, we must 
stand together and try to make peace with 
them.” 

“ But if you call giving up everything to 
them making peace, I don’t see the good 
of it.” 

“ Nor I,” growled Harold. 

“ No — not giving up everything,” Louis 
replied. “ There is a limit to everything. 
We can divide with them, and that is all. 
If we can keep them quiet until Frank is 
able to travel again, I think our best plan 
will be to leave them. If they pursue us, 
we will fight them. But we must be pre- 
pared for it, and be armed. ” 

“ What with ? Stone axes and arrow- 
heads .f*” scornfully asked Harold. “I 
don’t see what other arms we can 
find ! ” 

“ Well, in the stone age they did some 
pretty good execution with stone axes,” 
Frank said. “And then remember David 
killed Goliath with a pebble and sling.” 

“Which reminds me,” Warren added, 
“ that I have been trying to make a sling 
out of this twine I found in my pocket, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 185 

to kill some of these birds. I think fish 
three times a day as food will get tire- 
some. I ’m going to have a bird for my 
supper.” 

“ Necessity is the mother of invention,” 
Louis answered, “and Warren is already 
proving it. If he can make a sling and 
kill at twenty feet, I ’ll make a bow and 
arrow that will do as good execution.” 

“ Then I ’ll stand back of the archers 
with the battle-axe,” Frank added, “and 
Harold can use the spear. With a com- 
pany of archers, a battalion of spearmen, 
and a line of heavy battle-axe wielders, I 
think we will be invincible.” 

“In that case, suppose we hold a council 
of war now, and decide upon what to do,” 
suggested Louis. 

There was unanimous agreement to this, 
and for the first time the castaways sat 
down in a circle and seriously considered 
how best to meet the unexpected emer- 
gency that had forced itself upon them. 
It was clear to all of them that the prox- 
imity of the four men added to their 
difficulties, and, instead of welcoming 


1 86 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

them, the boys were prepared to offer 
battle to assert their independence and 
rights. But it was a struggle that might 
end disastrously to them, and not one of 
the four underestimated the real dangers 
presented. 


CHAPTER XVII 


N ight settled over the land and sea, 
shutting out the objects along the 
coast, so that an enemy might have crept 
upon the boys without arousing their 
suspicions. All the afternoon they had 
watched and waited for the reappearance 
of the strange men, and when dusk came 
Louis grew nervous. Under the light of 
the sun their case was not so hopeless, 
but, with only the dim moonlight to guide 
them, it seemed like quite another ques- 
tion. In their council of war they had 
decided to wait for the men, and then to 
make strenuous opposition to their appro- 
priation of the boat; but the approach of 
night disconcerted their plans. 

“ I don’t like to meet them here after 
dark,” Louis said finally. 

“Nor I,” Frank volunteered emphatic- 
ally. “ In the daytime I felt that we had 
a show, but under the cover of darkness 
they might creep upon us, and — ” 


1 88 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Rob us of our matches,” returned 
Louis, trying to smile. 

“ If they did n’t do anything worse, we 
might be thankful,” Frank said. 

“ Then I move that we break camp, and 
hide in a new place,” Warren suggested, 
peering up and down the coast 

“ I think that is the best thing for us 
to do.” 

“We’d do better if we took to the 
woods,” Harold added. “We know that 
there are woods up at the top of the cliff, 
and why not climb up there and hide in 
them ? ” 

“ That would suit me,” returned Frank, 
“if somebody will help me to climb the 
cliff. I don’t think I ’m equal to it alone 
yet.” 

“Oh, we’ll pull you up,” Warren re- 
plied, “if we have to rig up a block and 
tackle and use seaweed for ropes.” 

Louis suddenly rose from his position, 
and said: 

“ I think we should be moving. These 
men may appear any moment, and I don’t 
like the appearances of things. We can 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 189 

easily disappear in this darkness, and hide 
where they would never find us.” 

“ Lead away, Louis, and we follow.” 

“ Don’t forget our luggage,” added War- 
ren. “ We may never return.” 

“ Then I want my stone frying-pan,” 
Frank said. “ I never tasted such fine fish 
before, and I ’m sure that the stone had 
something to do in making it so sweet.” 

“ Come, Frank, we ’ve got to carry you ; 
don’t make us carry your stone frying-pan 
too!” 

Despite the fear which encompassed 
their minds, they tried to make light of 
their trip up the cliff to escape any secret 
midnight visit from the strange casta- 
wa)^s. There were frequent jokes and 
quips passed, and, as they toiled along, any 
mishap to one was sure to call forth mer- 
riment from the others. Finally Louis 
had to interpose. 

“ We must make less noise,” he said. 
“You wouldn’t think we were trying to 
hide. It sounds as if we were trying 
to attract the enemy’s attention to our 
new camping ground.” 


190 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

After that they trudged along in the 
darkness quietly, keeping closer together 
as they mounted the sides of the steep 
cliff. At some points, they were nearly 
baffled in their endeavors by the darkness, 
but waiting for favorable gleams of moon- 
light, they were enabled gradually to 
overcome all obstacles and reach the 
summit. 

From this lofty position they gazed by 
moonlight far out upon the enchanting 
scene. The ocean was quiet and majestic 
in its loneliness, and the white line of sea- 
coast, reaching out in either direction, 
marked its confines with a ghostly boun- 
dary. Back of the cliffs the dark outlines 
of the woods, hills, and mountains added 
gloom and solemnity to the scene. The 
boys rested on the summit, and looked 
down upon their former camp, five hun- 
dred feet below. 

“ I ’m glad we are up here,” Frank said. 
“ I feel safer.” 

“ I don’t think they will follow us,” 
Warren answered. 

Louis suddenly gripped the arm of each 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 19 1 

boy, and said sharply, “ Look ! Look over 
there ! Is that a light? ” 

Every eye was turned down the coast, 
in the direction Louis indicated. Then, 
in almost a single voice they exclaimed: 

“Yes, it’s a light! A ship or light- 
house 1 What is it, Louis ? ” 

Louis was as greatly puzzled as his 
companions. He had no word of expla- 
nation to offer. He shook his head 
quietly, and continued to stare at the 
strange light. Then suddenly, while he 
gazed, it disappeared. All four uttered an 
exclamation of wonder. 

“ Then it was n’t a ship,” said Warren, in 
disappointed tones. 

“ I don’t know,” was all that Louis 
replied. 

“ If it was a lighthouse, it would return,” 
Harold said. “Watch for it, and see if it 
comes back.” 

Even while he spoke, the light flashed 
again from out of the darkness, and spread 
a faint glimmer across the sea. They 
waited until it had disappeared, and re- 
appeared three times, before a word was 


192 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

spoken. Then Louis said, drawing in a 
breath of relief : 

“ It is a lighthouse ! We are not so 
far from civilization after all. To-morrow 
morning we will make an early start for it.” 

“Why not to-night .f*” Harold asked. 
“ I ’d sleep so much better if I knew there 
was a solid roof over my head.” 

“ Have you any idea how far away that 
light may be ? ” asked Louis. 

“ No, but we could reach it before 
morning.” 

“ Well, it may be fifty miles away, and 
we may have to cross a river or two before 
we reach it.” 

“ Then I wait until morning,” Frank 
replied. “ I don’t want to swim any 
strange rivers by moonlight. I ’ve had 
quite enough night swimming fora while.” 

“ If we only had our boat, we could row 
down the coast and make better time. 
This tide sets down the coast, and we 
could take advantage of it in the morning.” 

“ That ’s it ! ” Louis exclaimed suddenly. 
“ We must get back our boat, and go down 
in it. We won’t start for the lighthouse 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 193 

until we recover the boat. If the men re- 
turn in it, we will wait for them to land, 
and then make a rush for the boat. If 
they pursue us, I think we can give them 
a fair race. Frank, we shall expect you to 
lead the flying wedge with which we pro- 
pose to break through their ranks, if they 
offer to head us off.” 

“ I ’m better at the end just now, Louis, 
but you understand the tactics well, and 
I ’ll appoint you centre rush.” 

“ For that matter, we don’t need any 
leader,” Warren added. “ Louis can give 
the word, and we ’ll each race for the 
boat.” 

“ Then we should get plenty of sleep 
to-night. For my part I ’m tired out and 
ready to go to sleep.” 

“ So are we all.” 

The night air was cold and chilly, and 
the boys huddled close together to keep 
warm, but within a few minutes they were 
so soundly sleeping that any enemy might 
have stolen a march upon them. But hid- 
den away among the trees and bushes, they 

were almost as safe in that great, far-away, 
13 


194 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

lonely land as if they had been in their own 
cots at the Sheffield School. Once in the 
night Louis was awakened by a noise 
which seemed like the breaking of a twig, 
but after a few moments of reflection, he 
decided that he was as safe as if they had 
been on the Northern Star, 

When daylight dawned the light of the 
previous night had of course disappeared. 
Before they slept Louis had marked a cir- 
cle in the earth, and, after quartering this, 
he designated the direction of the light. 
By means of this rude compass he could 
direct the course of their travels down the 
coast until the lighthouse should appear. 
Strain their eyes as they would, no signs 
of any object that could be mistaken for a 
lighthouse appeared in the distance. 

Louis mused over this for some time, 
and then finally said : 

“ I did n’t know that there was any 
lighthouse along this entire coast, except 
near the few harbors, and I know we are 
not anywhere near one of them. When 
the storm struck us, the Northern Stars 
latitude and longitude were not favorable 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 195 

for reaching a harbor for weeks. I re- 
member father saying as much.” 

“ Probably then some more shipwrecked 
sailors are signalling for passing ships.” 

“ I don’t know that I care to meet them, 
then,” suggested Frank. “ The few speci- 
mens we have met are not very prepos- 
sessing.” 

“ No, I don’t think it is that,” Louis 
added. “ It is more probable that a party 
of sealers are camping ashore there, and 
they were flashing signals to their ship.” 

“ In that event, we should make an 
effort to reach them,” Warren interposed 
quickly. “ We could go back home with 
them.” 

“ Yes, we shall make our best effort to 
reach them. But first let us recover our 
boat.” 

“We should go down on the beach and 
practise the flying wedge. I think that 
would amuse the men when they come up 
for their breakfast of fish.” 

In the early morning light they climbed 
down the sides of the steep cliff, and began 
to rekindle the dying fire. There was no 


196 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

sign of any one on the beach, and the boys 
proceeded to make another catch of fish in 
their trap. The tide had washed a gener- 
ous supply into the small lagoon over 
night, and, when this was drained off as be- 
fore, they had plenty of food for breakfast. 

“ The odor of this ought to bring the 
men back with the boat,” Frank remarked, 
turning his fish with a flat stick. “ Ah, it 
smells good, boys ! ” 

Indeed it did have a savory odor, and 
the four young castaways sat down on the 
rocks and sand to a breakfast that was fit 
to serve before a king. With good appe- 
tites they devoured large pieces of fish, 
washing it down with clear spring water. 
A few wild berries they had picked on the 
top of the cliff added a little variety and 
relish to the meal. 

“ It is all right for the present,” Frank 
remarked, when fully satisfied; “but I 
think we should have a change of diet 
soon. Fish, fish, fish, all the time may 
become monotonous in a few days.” 

“ Beggars can’t be choosers.” 

“ No, but we are not beggars yet. I ’m 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 197 

going to hunt for something different 
.pretty soon.” 

J ust then H arold glanced up and shouted • 
“ Here come the men in our boat ! ” 
Across the shimmering surface of the 
sea, the boat was gliding smoothly, and, as 
it approached nearer, they could see that 
it contained the four occupants of the pre- 
vious day. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


HE boys waited quietly for the boat. 



A They were anxious now to see the 
men land, for their plan of action was 
decided upon. Each boy had his cue. 
Frank was to wander away from the group, 
and reach an advantageous point near the 
boat before the others started on a rush 
for it. This would give Frank ample time 
to get in the boat safely, despite his weak- 
ness and lameness, before the men could 
overtake him. 

“ Once launched, we can get away from 
them easily,” Louis said quietly, watching 
the approaching men. “ But don’t get 
anxious and make a mistake. If they sus- 
pect our motives, we ’ll have trouble.” 

In a few moments the boat touched the 
shore, and was carried up on the beach on 
the crest of a big roller. Louis saw how 
it landed, and gave the advice in an under- 
tone : 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 199 

“We must pick up the boat two on a 
side, and carry it out on the waves as far 
as we can. Frank and I will take the 
right side, and Warren and Harold the 
left." 

The four men tumbled out of the boat, 
and dragged it a few feet farther up on 
the sand. Then three of them started to 
walk toward the boys. The fourth man 
stood by the boat, but unwillingly. He 
talked fiercely and protestingly to the 
others. 

“ Gracious, one man is going to stay 
behind to guard the boat," muttered Frank. 
“ That upsets our plan ! " 

Louis was staring hard at the men ; 
then he said : 

“ We must let Frank get down to the 
boat and engage th^man in conversation, 
before we make a run for it. Attract his 
attention to something on the ocean, 
Frank, and when his back is turned to us 
I will give the signal. Then we ’ll have 
to bowl him over if he attempts to inter- 
fere." 

These few words of admonition were 


200 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

given while the three men were walking 
up the beach toward the camp. When 
they were within a few yards of the fire, 
Louis picked up some of the freshly cooked 
fish, and said : 

“ See, we have your fish cooked for you ! 
Here ’s plenty for all of you.” 

The men hurried forward to seize their 
portion. Then Louis added, turning to 
Frank : “ Shall we send this down to the 
other man ? He ’ll want some. Here, 
Frank, take it to him.” 

The greedy men made no opposition to 
this, and Frank took the fish and walked 
rapidly toward the boat. The man left 
behind caught the odor of the fish, and 
went half-way to meet him. The two 
then strolled slowly down toward the boat, 
Frank talking, and the man eating. 

From his position near the fire, Louis 
watched all this, and then suddenly he 
said : “ Eat all you want, my men, for this 
may be your last meal with us. See, the 
fire is burning low.” 

When the men looked at the fire, Louis 
raised his arms high over his head. The 


201 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

boys understood the signal. With one 
accord they turned and ran swiftly down 
the beach. When the three men looked 
up from the fire again they were alone. 
Three figures were half-way down the 
beach, running with all their might toward 
the boat. The man who was the leader of 
the gang saw through the ruse first, and, 
raising his voice in a cry of alarm, he 
started after them. 

His voice attracted the attention of 
the fourth man with Frank, who, turning 
his head, quickly realized that there was 
something wrong. He started to head 
the boys off, making straight for the boat ; 
but he was not quick enough for the 
young football player. Frank suddenly 
dropped down in front of him, and the 
man stumbled over his body and fell 
sprawling in the sand. Frank was in- 
stantly up again and running with all 
his might. 

Ordinarily there would have been no 
trouble; but Frank was quite weak and 
lame, and he could not make fast time. 
The other boys were waiting for him 


202 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

when he finally reached the boat. He 
was puffing and panting, but he took his 
place by the side of Louis. 

“Now, one, two, three — lift!” shouted 
the latter. 

They picked the craft up and carried it 
to the water. A wave struck it, and they 
had to wait until it receded. Then again 
they lifted and carried it outward. They 
were knee-deep, and a heavy roller struck 
them. They lost a few feet, and Harold 
stumbled and fell. 

“ Up now, and at it again! ” whispered 
Louis, hoarsely. “ The men will be here 
in a moment!” 

Once more they lifted the boat and 
carried it out on a heavy roller, but just 
then the man Frank had tripped plunged 
into the water. Louis saw the danger, 
but he gave the boat a violent push, fell 
into water up to his arm-pits, and shouted : 

“ Jump aboard, and pull with the oars ! ” 

He did not attempt to pull himself in 
the boat, but clung to the stern with one 
hand, and prepared to meet the man with 
the other. The boat was carried out by 






r 


. I • 


•c 





5 









The Mysterious Beacon Light 203 

the wave, and then, meeting another, it 
was washed in again ; but the boys caught 
the water with their rude oars and 
checked it. Then the receding wave 
carried it swiftly out from the shore. But 
it carried with it, too, the man who was 
fighting to get possession of the property. 
He plunged into the waves, and in an- 
other moment he reached out a hand to 
grasp the stern of the craft. But Louis 
had been waiting for this emergency. He 
had found time to rest and prepare for the 
conflict. With a sharp blow he struck 
the arm downward, but the hand did not 
relax its hold. Then he grasped it with 
one of his own, and tried to open the 
fingers. 

There was a sharp, silent struggle in 
the water. When the man grasped the 
stern of the boat, the two were equal in 
the combat. But, meanwhile, the boys 
had rowed the boat out into deep water, 
and they thought they were safe. 

They soon discovered their mistake, 
however, for a gurgling voice shouted: 
“ Hold on. Bill, I ’ll help you ! ” 


204 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Louis cast a glance over his shoulder, 
and saw the leader of the men swimming 
with powerful strokes toward them. He 
took the waves so easily that it seemed 
as if he moved faster than the boat. It 
was no time to wait or think of other 
people’s pain and suffering. It was time to 
take extreme action. 

Louis climbed into the boat, ignoring the 
man by his side. Then picking up a heavy 
piece of driftwood, he said ominously : 

“ Let go of that boat, or I ’ll kill you ! ” 

The man stared hard at him, but he 
was as determined as the boys to cling to 
the craft. Louis raised his stick threat- 
eningly : 

“ One, two, three ! ” 

He brought the stick down heavily, and 
the man ducked his head ; but Louis had 
no intention of striking him to kill. He 
had made his threat simply to attract his 
attention away from his intended point of 
attack. When the man’s head was under 
water, Louis rapped the two hands cling- 
ing to the boat so sharply that they spas- 
modically relaxed their hold. Then, before 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 205 

the man could renew his grasp, Louis 
pushed him off and away from the craft. 

“ Now pull hard ! ” he shouted, using his 
own stick to help the boat along. 

The man left behind tried hard to swim 
and catch hold of the boat; but his fingers 
were tingling with pain, and he soon gave 
up the unequal struggle. The leader of 
the men persisted a little longer, and then 
he, too, returned to the shore. From this 
position they cursed the boys freely, and 
threatened them with all sorts of dreadful 
things. 

“ That was an expensive fish dinner for 
them,” Frank said with a grin. 

“ But it was rather rough to take a fall 
out of that poor chap, and then rap his fin- 
gers with a stick of wood,” added Warren. 

“ Don’t waste your sympathy on them 
yet,” Louis suggested. “We’re not out 
of the woods. They ’re following us along 
the shore, and they ’d make it warm for us 
if we landed.” 

“ But we don’t intend to land until we 
find that lighthouse.” 

“ We won’t be so sure of that either. 


2o 6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

That lighthouse may prove very illusory. 
Stranger things have happened at sea 
before.” 

They drifted and rowed down the coast, 
the current helping them in their journey. 
The men on the shore followed, walking 
just abreast of the boat. It was clearly 
their intention not to let the boys land. 
In time, hunger and thirst would force 
them to the shore. Then, either a con- 
flict with the men, or the loss of their 
boat again, would inevitably follow. 

“We must outwit them some way,” sug- 
gested Warren. 

“ Under the cover of darkness, we can 
land somewhere, and hide the boat.” 

Louis shook his head dubiously. He 
was not satisfied that any feasible plan 
had yet been discovered. Without work- 
ing hard at the oars, they made good head- 
way down the coast, every eye vigilantly 
watching for anything that would suggest 
the possible presence of a lighthouse. One 
headland of rock after another was passed, 
and still they saw nothing promising. 


CHAPTER XIX 



HE hunt for the lighthouse proved 


i a more formidable undertaking than 
any of the boys had imagined, for, as they 
learned before night, no such sailor’s 
beacon was built anywhere along that 
part of the Labrador coast. But the mys- 
tery of the flashing light which they had 
seen the night before, encouraged them to 
row down the coast all day, alternately 
watching the men on the beach following 
them, and the summits of the high cliffs. 
It was late in the afternoon when they 
finally reached one of thfc most conspicu- 
ous promontories on the coast. The sum- 
mit of this could be seen for miles away, 
and its bold, rugged face protruded far 
out into the sea, ending in a series of 
rough rocks which extended nearly two 
miles from the beach. These rocks gradu- 
ally lessened in number and size, as they 
extended out from the shore, until they 


2o 8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

disappeared under the water, where the 
waves rolled over them. 

The rocks formed a line of surf ahead, 
which Louis discovered long before the 
others. He stood up in his boat and 
studied the rocks and breakers for a time. 
Then he finally announced: 

“ I ’m not sure that we can pass those 
breakers ahead. They run out a long 
distance, and I don’t know what we may 
find on the other side of the rocks. Night 
is coming on, and I don’t like to get too 
far away from the shore.” 

“ Neither do I,” chimed in Frank, his 
late experience in the water still vivid in 
his mind. 

“ But we can land somewhere, when it 
gets dark,” Harold suggested. 

“Yes, and get nabbed by our enemies.” 

“ I prefer trusting myself to the tender 
mercies of the sea,” Warren replied, look- 
ing around at the calm, peaceful water. 

“ If I only knew what to expect on the 
other side of the rocky shoal, I should 
know what to do,” Louis said contempla- 
tively. “ I should n’t be surprised if there 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 209 

was a deep bay around there which we 
could sail up and find a safe hiding 
place.” 

“ Then by all means let us try to reach 
it before night.” 

“We 11 have to pull harder than we 
are pulling now, if we do.” 

“ That ’s easy. We can take turns, and 
make good time.” 

“ All right, then. 1 11 steer straight for 
the end of the rocks.” 

With this decision made, Louis turned 
the bow of the boat seaward, and, to those 
on the shore, it almost looked as if they 
were steering directly for the open sea, to 
cross it. For a long time the boat was 
held in this direction, approaching the 
rocks in a way which would bring them 
to the end before they actually reached 
the line of breakers. The deceptions at 
sea are often cruelly prolonged and disap- 
pointing. Even to old sailors the optical 
illusions are sometimes very serious mat- 
ters. Louis soon discovered that his cal- 
culations were far from correct. The end 
of the rocky shoal was much farther from 
14 


210 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the land than he had anticipated, and when 
they reached what had at first appeared 
to be the last rock, there were others 
ahead. In fact, it seemed as if their 
undertaking was, after all, a foolish one. 
The boys were nearly exhausted in their 
efforts, and when they finally rested on 
their oars, Frank asked : “ How much 
longer must we keep this up, Louis ? ” 

“ I don’t know. I had no idea it was 
such a long journey. The sun is sink- 
ing rapidly, too, and we should find some 
shelter soon.” 

“ Is n’t there a moon to-night ? ” 

“Yes, but I don’t care to steer this boat 
around these rocks by moonlight. The 
sea is too treacherous here.” 

“Then we must pull away until we get 
through to the bay ? ” 

“ Yes, that is our only hope. But wait ! 
I think we can shorten our trip, if — ” 
Louis stood up in his boat and glanced 
ahead at the line of surf. Then, as if con- 
vincing himself of his decision, he said 
aloud: “Yes, I’ll do it. I’ll try to run 
between those rocks.” 


21 I 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

He pointed to a narrow channel which 
seemed to open in the surf, forming a sort 
of river between two of the largest rocks. 
The breakers dashed fiercely upon either 
side, and their foam extended almost en- 
tirely across the smooth piece of water 
that divided them. The rest of the crew 
looked at this narrow channel and seemed 
to shudder; but no voice of opposition or 
of dread was raised. Their eyes glanced 
on past the rocks to the distant shore, 
where the lines of the evening shadows 
were already creeping down from the 
hills. The figures of the men who had 
been following them all day were lost to 
view in the distance. It was not likely 
that they would attempt to climb out on 
the rocks to reach them, for such a feat 
would have required climbing and swim- 
ming ability of no mean order. They had 
at least temporarily left the pursuers be- 
hind, but new dangers appeared to loom 
up ahead, which immediately filled their 
minds with other thoughts. 

“ We must get under all the speed pos- 
sible to go through the channel,” Louis 


212 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

said, after a long pause. “ If we have no 
tide or current to contend with, I can steer 
the boat between the breakers all right; 
but you must all row hard. Don’t look 
to the right or left. Simply row — pull 
hard all the time, and obey orders.” 

This is a hard task to perform under 
almost any circumstances, but it was pe- 
culiarly difficult with the danger threat- 
ening them of being swamped at any 
moment. But the boys had found by 
past experience that it paid them to fol- 
low the advice of Louis. His familiarity 
with the sea and its treacherous ways 
made him competent to give advice when 
theirs was of little value. 

They pulled steadily on their rough 
boards, which had been shaped to resem- 
ble oars as much as possible, while Louis, 
with eyes directed ahead, watched for 
danger. As they neared the line of rocks, 
the roar of the breakers increased. The 
water grew rougher and more turbulent, 
and the line of retreating foam soon 
reached them. Still the three boys rowed, 
with their eyes turned toward the peaceful 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 213 

sea over the stern. Only one pair of eyes 
faced the danger. 

Suddenly Louis said sharply : “ Now 
we ’re getting near the rough water, and 
you must not be surprised at anything I 
do. If I find there are strong cross-cur- 
rents and eddies, I shall turn the boat 
around and go back before it is too late. 
It is important that you should row all 
the harder then, or we might be drawn 
upon the rocks by one of the eddies. So 
don’t be surprised at anything. Row 
hard when I tell you, and hold your oars 
when I give the order to rest.” 

“ Ay, ay, Louis, we ’ll take your orders ! ” 
shouted Frank, with an attempt at cheer- 
fulness. 

In a few moments they plunged into the 
seething foam of the retreating breakers 
as they fell back after breaking their heads 
on the rocks. This foam often rushed in 
a series of small waves that swept well up 
to the edge of the boat ; but none of the 
boys appeared to mind this. They were 
working together under orders, and noth- 
ing could daunt them. 


214 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

The boat was under pretty good head- 
way by this time, and each united pull of 
the oars sent her forward faster. The roll 
of the sea was so considerable that the 
craft rocked, and made rowing more diffi- 
cult, but the boys tried to show their 
fearlessness of all danger by completely 
ignoring it. Even when the spray from a 
wave crest flung upward struck them in 
the face, they merely made a grimace and 
bent the harder to their task. Louis stood, 
grim and silent, in the stern before them. 
They could watch his face, but it was so 
firmly set that they could read little 
thereon of what was happening ahead. 

When they reached the edge of the 
rocks, the breakers thundered all around 
them with such a deafening noise that 
they could not hear one another speak. 
They even doubted if they could hear an 
order from their captain, and they watched 
his face to see if he spoke. Any moment 
they might receive the command which, 
if not implicitly obeyed, might cause a 
catastrophe. But the order did not come. 
They rowed steadily onward until a wall 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 215 

of foam seemed to engulf them. Back 
through the mist and spray they could 
catch glimpses of the black teeth of the 
rocks, huge, jagged pieces of stone that 
towered twenty feet above the surface of 
the sea. And yet their boat was appar- 
ently in calm, smooth water. At one time 
it seemed to be caught by strong eddies 
which twisted it sideways and made it 
shiver as if with fright. Then it plunged 
forward with accelerated speed, only to be 
brought to a sudden stop by some mighty 
power. Unseen, invisible forces were at 
work in the water underneath, but at the 
stern there was a steady, firm power which 
overcame all of these forces of evil and 
destruction. Louis, with the practised 
skill of an oarsman and sailor, made due 
calculations for cross-currents, and, taking 
advantage of each wave and receding 
breaker, he forced the boat along through 
the narrow channel with unerring ability. 

Ahead of him a sea of foam and waves 
battled, forming a sight calculated to 
frighten and unnerve the hardiest of mar- 
iners. At times the narrow way was 


2 i 6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

entirely closed by the waves, and it was 
baffling to the eye to distinguish the line 
of the channel from the treacherous sides. 
Again the smaller rocks, half submerged 
by the water, would show their heads and 
form a barrier against which a boat could 
beat its ribs to pieces in a few moments. 
Between these ragged rocks Louis knew 
that he had to steer his boat, and a slight 
deviation either way would wreck it. He 
was not sure that there was a clear passage 
ahead between the rocks, and he had to 
rely upon his judgment to determine 
whether to go ahead or retreat. 

In a short time it was too late to retreat. 
The boat was caught in the narrow chan- 
nel with no room to turn about. More- 
over, Louis soon found that there was a 
strong current setting through the passage 
which caught his boat and carried it along 
with great speed. They were now openly 
committed to the inevitable. They were 
either to pass the rocks safely, or be 
dashed to pieces upon them. 

It was no longer necessary for the oars- 
men to row. The boat was rushing along 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 217 

at a speed which required all the skill of 
the helmsman to steer straight. Calling 
out in a loud voice, Louis ordered them 
to cease rowing. The oars immediately 
dropped on the half stroke, and were raised 
in the air. For the first time the rowers 
breathed easily, and then half turned their 
heads to get a glimpse of the sea ahead. 

It was not a pleasant view which met 
their gaze, and they turned a little pale at 
the first sight ; but, when they saw the boat 
speeding past the rocks and breakers, their 
confidence in Louis returned to reassure 
them. They felt that he would steer the 
boat through the danger, if any human 
being possibly could. 

The moment of fearful danger was really 
of short duration, although to the boys it 
seemed an age while their boat was pass- 
ing through the ma’dstrom of seething 
and eddying waters. They shot past the 
big black rocks with great swiftness, the 
keel of their boat grating on some rough 
edge, and then they hurried on to another 
frowning boulder, standing knee-deep in 
the water. The wall of foam and break- 


21 8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

ing billows encompassed them, and the 
roar of the turbulent waters became deaf- 
ening. Yet through it all the boat con- 
tinued steadily on its course, and in a few 
moments it shot out into comparatively 
quiet water. It took some moments for 
the boys to realize that they were clear of 
the rocks and reef, and they remained idly 
passive, watching the trap from which they 
had escaped. Frank finally exclaimed, 
jumping to his feet, and pointing ahead : 
“ Look! Look I We ’re at the mouth of 
a river. ” 

“ Yes, and the tide is carrying us up it,” 
replied Louis, who had noticed this before 
any of the others. “ That is why the cur- 
rent took us through that channel so rap- 
idly. I think now we can reach land 
before dark. ” 

“ And why not land on the opposite side 
of the river.? ” asked Warren. 

“Yes, and the men will not be able 
to follow us,” shouted Harold, gleefully. 
“ They cannot cross this river unless they 
have a boat. ” 

“ But they may have a raft of logs,” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 219 

suggested Frank. “ I don’t think they 
would stay up here so long and have no 
means of crossing the river.” 

“ You ’re right, Frank,” Louis responded. 
“ I think we ’ll have a visit from them, 
sooner or later, even if we do land across 
the river.” 

“ But they ’ve lost sight of us now,” said 
Warren. “ Then why not stay away from 
the shore until dark ? They won’t see us 
land then, and we can at least have another 
night of peace.” 

“ That ’s a good suggestion,” responded 
Louis, “and we ’ll act upon it. I think we 
could, in an emergency, almost make a 
landing on these rocks on the lee shore. 
I certainly shall make an effort. ” 


CHAPTER XX 


B ut the attempt to make a brief land- 
ing on the rocks proved almost dis- 
astrous, and the boys, after a few futile 
efforts, abandoned the plan entirely, Louis 
advising them not to run any farther risks 
on such a dangerous rock-bound coast. 
The swell of the waves and the eddying 
currents caught the boat at times with 
great force, and almost jammed it between 
the rocks. Finally Louis said : 

“ Never mind. It ’s nearly dusk now, 
and before we reach the land it will be too 
dark for the men to follow us. We will 
row up close to this shore, as if we in- 
tended to land on this side, and then cut 
directly across when we reach the opposite 
point.” 

The dusk of early evening descended 
swiftly and surely, and as the moon did 
not rise for an hour after sundown, the 
ocean was clothed in darkness for some 


221 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 

time. Under this cloud of gloom, the boys 
finally paddled their boat across the river, 
and touched the beach not far from the 
mouth of the river or basin. When they 
landed they pulled the boat up on the 
beach and concealed it behind some rocks, 
intending to keep it there until the moon 
rose. 

“ Then,” suggested Louis, “ we might 
row up the river some distance, and land 
where the woods come close down to the 
water. We can find some place to hide in 
the woods where the men would have a 
hard time to find us. Meanwhile, I want 
to find something to eat.” 

Digging in the sands for shellfish, they 
were soon oblivious to all the dangers of 
their surroundings, and not until their 
appetite was satisfied did they think of 
continuing their journey. 

“ I ’d like some broiled fish for supper,” 
said Frank, ruefully. “ But it would n’t be 
safe to light a fire, I suppose.” 

“ No, not to-night. But we ’ll find a cave 
somewhere to-morrow, where we can build 
a fire and not attract attention, especially 


222 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

at night-time. Smoke does n’t betray you 
at night, but bright flames do.” 

The river which they had entered 
could be studied better an hour later, 
when the moon rose. The promontory 
which they had rounded with so much 
difliculty could be seen in all its rugged- 
ness, jutting far out into the river, and in 
the moonlight it had a wild beauty which 
attracted the boys. The river or basin 
cut into one side of it, and disappeared 
between two wooded shores which sloped 
gradually down to the beach. The tide 
rushed into this basin with great swift- 
ness, and when the flood was reached, 
the mouth of the stream was fully tw^o 
miles wide. The rise and fall of the tide 
seemed fully twenty feet, so that, at one 
time, few rocks were visible above the 
surface of the water, and again shoals of 
small and large rocks stretched for miles 
in all directions. 

The moon was full, and had risen above 
the sea in all its glory, before the boys de- 
cided to look for another anchorage place. 
By that time the tide was nearing the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 223 

flood, and they could paddle their boat 
more easily along the shore without invit- 
ing any risk of foundering on some hid- 
den rock. They were about to shove off 
from the beach to explore the wooded 
banks of the river, when suddenly their 
attention was attracted by a sight which 
made them gasp with wonder. 

Almost directly over their heads, just 
across the mouth of the river, flashed out 
the mysterious light which they had no- 
ticed the night before several miles up 
the coast. They were so near the light 
that it seemed as if its rays would reach 
them. They slowly flashed out over 
the sea, and then, as the light revolved, 
searched every part of the river and the 
wooded shore. The boys dodged as the 
rays reached them, but instantly they 
smiled at their action. 

“ The lighthouse is on the promontory 
we rounded to-day,” gasped Frank, finally, 
after the four had stared in amazement at 
the light. 

“ Why did n’t we see the tower then } ” 
asked Warren, incredulously. 


224 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“We must have been too much inter- 
ested in escaping the rocks to look in the 
right direction,” added Harold. 

“No, I don’t think it’s that,” Louis 
replied slowly. 

“ What then ? What is it, Louis ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” frankly and bluntly 
answered the boy. “ It ’s all a mystery to 
me, but I don’t think it ’s a lighthouse. 
However, we must investigate.” 

“ To-night? How can we reach it with- 
out being discovered by the men? We 
don’t want to fall into their clutches 
again.” 

“ No, we won’t go to-night unless — ” 

Louis hesitated for so long that his 
companions grew impatient. 

“ I don’t like to say it,” he finally added, 
in reply to their importunate questions, 
“but I believe the men we met on the 
beach were wreckers, and that this is a 
false beacon light. I remember now hear- 
ing, some time ago, of a light being placed 
somewhere along this part of the coast as 
a guide to the sailors who might get lost 
up north late in the season. It was a 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 225 

sort of way-station for them, provided 
with food and clothing by the govern- 
ment. When they saw the light, they 
knew it was a safe anchorage place, and 
the ship could find shelter behind the 
promontory in times of trouble. But the 
station was abandoned after a while. I 
don’t know why; but not every sea-cap- 
tain knew of this, and ships in trouble 
would look for it long after it was given 
up. Then there were rumors abroad that 
false lights were seen on the coast, and 
that many ships were lured on the rocks 
to their destruction. Several wrecks oc- 
curred in that way, and escaping sailors 
told of the hardships they had received, 
and of wreckers who had robbed them 
of all they possessed. Of course, such 
stories are easily started and hard to prove. 
It ’s a part of the world that few trading 
ships ever reach, and wreckers might 
work here for years without being caught. 
They would probably lure two or three 
ships a year on the rocks, and they could 
reap a good harvest in that way.” 

“ Then you think the stories are, after 


226 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

all, true, and that we have fallen among 
this nest of wreckers ? ” asked Frank, 
indignantly. 

“ I am inclined to think so, Frank, but I 
may be mistaken.” 

“ Then we should do something to stop 
their work.” 

“Yes, it is that I was thinking of when 
you first interrupted me. I was going to 
say that we would n’t investigate until 
morning, unless we should, by luck, see a 
ship’s lights along the coast. ” 

“ If we did, we would try to prevent her 
approaching the coast } ” 

“Yes, at the risk of our lives,” replied 
Louis, sharply. “There is no more treach- 
erous harbor in the world than this little 
basin. Why, at any tide, it is so full of 
rocks that a ship would go on them before 
she could come to anchor. It is an ideal 
place for wreckers to ply their trade. In 
the first place, that long ledge of rocks 
extends so far out to sea that any ship 
coming within five miles of the light, on a 
dark night, would strike a rock and pound 
herself to pieces before morning. Then 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 227 

this tide would wash the wreckage in the 
river, and the wreckers could pick it up 
at their leisure. Just think of the Northern 
Star, for instance, coming in here ! If 
father saw this light, he would approach 
the coast to investigate it. He would 
be looking fdr us, and, thinking it was 
our signal, he would run too close for 
safety.” 

“ I think we should make an effort to 
destroy the light as soon as possible, then,” 
Warren said. “ I for one am ready at any 
time to make a raid on it.” 

“ We ’ll make an exploring expedition 
around it to-morrow, when it is light,” Louis 
replied. “ We must first find a good an- 
chorage for our boat, so the men can’t find 
it. Then we can take to the woods, and 
hide from them at will. We shall stay 
this side of the river for the present, and I 
hope they will stay on their side. But 
now, come, we must make a moonlight 
start to explore our surroundings.” 

They pushed the boat off from the shore, 
and floated quietly up the stream. By 
keeping close to the bank, they were so 


228 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

hidden from view by the shadows of the 
woods and rocks that no one could see 
them fifty feet away, but they had a clear 
view of the river and opposite bank. As 
they proceeded slowly up the stream, they 
caught different points of view of the re- 
volving light. It was located on the high- 
est point of the headland ; and in the 
moonlight, it appeared like a tall, slender 
spindle with a rude sort of light surmount- 
ing it. At one point on the river, the view 
was so favorable that they stopped the 
boat for ten minutes, while they made a 
careful study of the situation. 

“ It certainly revolves,” said Frank, after 
a long pause. “ Would wreckers be apt to 
have a light that could move ? ” 

“It doesn’t seem probable,” Louis re- 
sponded, “ but, on the other hand, it is a 
crude sort of an affair. I never saw a 
light like it before. If it ’s a home-made 
affair, it is ingeniously built.” 

“ Why not land on that side of the river 
and make an exploration to-night ? ” asked 
Warren, feeling the spirit of adventure 
stirring within him. “We can’t do any 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 229 

more than get caught, and I don’t think 
that will happen, if we are careful.” 

“ I ’m in favor of finding a hiding-place 
first,” Louis replied. “ Then we might 
hunt up the light to-morrow night. We 
could n’t do it in the day-time, if the men 
are around, without falling into an ambush. 
They could watch us land, and then, when 
we left the boat, capture it.” 

“ Still, I ’m in the mood to go up to the 
top of the hill and find out the mystery of 
the strange light,” Warren persisted. 

“ How about the rest of you ? If you all 
agree to Warren’s proposition, I ’m willing. 
I must confess I ’m interested too, and anx- 
ious to find out the meaning of the light.” 

“ Would we run any danger in rowing 
across the river and landing ? ” Frank 
asked, looking cautiously across the moon- 
lit stream. 

“ If we crossed here, I think we would,” 
Louis answered ; “ but not if we row up be- 
yond the turn, and then get into the shadow 
of the opposite bank. No one could see 
us then, and we could row silently down the 
stream to the point nearest the hill.” 


230 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Then I ’m in favor of making the ex- 
periment to-night.” 

“ And you, Harold ? ” 

“Yes, I’m with you. I vote to move 
upon the enemy’s camp right away.” 

“ Then pull up stream until we get 
around the bend, and we ’ll cross over ; but, 
mind, we must move silently, and not talk 
when we get near the opposite bank.” 

With silent strokes they pulled the craft 
along through the water, keeping close in 
the shadow of the bank. A high bluff 
jutted out into the river, forming a sharp 
bend for the stream. When they had 
passed around this, the ocean and the 
light were entirely cut off from view. 

“ Now we can cross in safety, and then 
make the return trip on the other side,” 
Louis said. 

Within a few moments the boat was 
gliding softly through the water, hugging 
the opposite shore, approaching nearer 
and nearer to what the boys termed their 
enemy’s country. Just where the men 
were located, they had no way to find out, 
but they were sure that they would be on 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 231 

a constant lookout for them. They were 
not a class of men to be baffled and 
outwitted without harboring a spirit of 
revenge. It might go hard with the boys 
if they should fall into the hands of the 
strange inhabitants of the coast after their 
recent experience with them. 


CHAPTER XXI 


T he bank which they skirted rose 
rather precipitously from the water’s 
edge, and heavy trees hung far out over 
the surface of the stream, forming a pro- 
tection from the moon’s rays which served 
the boys a good turn. Back in the woods 
all was dark, so black, in fact, that the eye 
could distinguish nothing. Even the 
trunks of the trees were lost in this gloom. 
It was difficult for the boys to make out 
landmarks to guide them in their journey. 
Several times they had to stop the boat, 
while Louis vainly sought to catch a 
glimpse of the light on the top of the hill. 
The branches from the overhanging trees 
would sometimes strike them on the head 
and inflict a painful sting. Throughout 
it all, the silence of the woods and sea 
brooded over the place. Occasionally a 
bird or marauding animal would steal out 
of the bush and splash in the water, or 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 233 

some creature, caught by an enemy, would 
shriek out its dying gasp that would echo 
on the night air. 

There was no chance to encourage one 
another with words, for the order was given 
that not a word should be spoken above 
a whisper. In the darkness, the boys 
listened and rowed, using every sense to 
catch a faint alarm. For a long time they 
proceeded in this fashion down the stream, 
Louis in the bow of the boat, directing 
them in whispers or by signs. Once he 
grasped the overhanging branches of a 
tree and brought the boat to a sudden 
stop, which alarmed the rest of the occu- 
pants. For five minutes they waited in 
breathless silence. Then he said, in a low 
whisper : 

“ Row on again. I thought I heard 
some one in the woods, but it must have 
been an animal.” 

After that their courage was not quite 
so fine, and their spirit for adventure not 
quite so active. They were nearing dan- 
gers which, at a distance, seemed less posi- 
tive. However, they were one and all 


234 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

committed to the midnight expedition, 
and not one was willing to back out. 

When they had reached a point nearly 
opposite the place where they had first 
landed, Louis swung the boat into the 
shore with a sharp pull on one of the con- 
venient branches overhead. The next 
moment the bow of the boat bumped 
against the bank. Louis, holding securely 
to the branch, tied the rope to the roots of 
the tree, and quietly stepped ashore, feel- 
ing his way among the branches. Slowly 
and silently the others followed, each keep- 
ing within touching distance of the one 
preceding. The boat drifted a few feet 
out, to the full length of the painter, and 
then swung idly against the branches. 

Working their way through the woods, 
the boys finally reached higher ground, 
where the trees were fewer and the under- 
brush very sparse. The light of the moon 
made their pathway easier to follow, and 
sometimes open spaces would occur which 
enabled them to study their surroundings 
for long distances around. 

Nothing occurred to alarm them, and. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 235 

when they reached the summit of the hill, 
they looked down upon the river, which 
they had so recently left, and across it 
to the opposite bank. The ocean beyond 
was bright and silvery in the moonlight. 
A bright stream of light from the beacon 
on the top of the cliff was shining out 
upon the water. They had landed close 
to the light, and, from their vantage point, 
they could now see that it was a crude 
affair built by some rough mechanics. It 
was, in reality, a huge barrel with two 
panels cut out of the sides and a light 
placed inside. When the barrel revolved, 
the light flashed from the open panels 
as the rays from an ordinary revolving 
lighthouse. 

“ What moves it ? ” asked Harold, in a 
whisper, as they watched the queer ap- 
paratus revolving before their eyes. 

“ Somebody must be up there turning 
it,” Frank replied. 

The barrel was mounted on the top of 
a huge tree-trunk, which had been cut off 
even at the top. A rude sort of platform 
had been built on the top, so that a person 


236 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

could walk around the light. As the boys 
approached nearer to the queer light, they 
could hear the creaking of the barrel as it 
turned around. All else was quiet and 
motionless. There was no sign of any 
human being in the vicinity, but the light 
continued to revolve slowly and rhythmi- 
cally. 

After approaching within a hundred 
feet of the light, Louis signalled to with- 
draw, and at a safe distance he said : 

“ There must be some one in charge of 
the light, and we don’t want to attract his 
attention. We must retreat now, and 
wait for some other time before investigat- 
ing closer. I imagine that, in the day- 
time, the place is deserted, and we can 
then steal up here and study the whole 
thing.” 

None of the boys cared to run any risk, 
and they willingly followed Louis back to 
their boat. Convinced that the men were 
up at the light, they walked more carelessly 
down the embankment, and even ventured 
at times to speak above a whisper. But 
they were rudely awakened to the foolish- 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 237 

ness of this course. Warren suddenly 
stopped, and said : 

“ Listen ! Was n’t that a paddle in the 
water ? It sounded as if some one was 
rowing.” 

All four waited patiently, and, in a few 
moments, they could hear "‘the distinct 
splash of oars in the water not far from 
them. They looked at one another blankly. 
There could be no question now about the 
presence of others near their boat 

“ They watched us land, and have stolen 
our boat,” whispered Frank. 

The boys listened for a repetition of 
the sound in the water. All was dark 
near the edge of the bank, and they could 
see nothing moving on the surface of the 
river. 

“ We have the advantage, if they land 
again,” Louis said softly. “ If they leave 
the boat a minute, we can recover it with 
a rush.” 

“ It would have been better for us if we 
had stayed across the river until daylight,” 
Warren murmured regretfully. 

“ So Louis thought,” Harold answered. 


238 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“but, as usual, we all wanted our way 
against his better judgment.” 

Louis interrupted this whispered con- 
versation by beckoning them to follow 
him, as he took up the line of march once 
more. Slowly they approached closer to 
the river’s edge, working their way through 
the bushes and trees until, suddenly, there 
was a splash directly in front of them. 
Every boy grasped his stick, which he had 
carried along for an emergency, and stood 
on the defensive. 

But the alarm was quickly explained. 
In stepping forward too eagerly, Frank 
had plunged a foot into a soft hole near 
the edge of the river, and for a moment it 
seemed to him as if he would sink out of 
sight. Louis had grasped him by the 
shoulder in the darkness, and pulled him 
back to a place of safety. 

The noise of the fall had, however, at- 
tracted the attention of those paddling on 
the river, for the splashing of the oars in- 
stantly ceased. Realizing their danger of 
discovery, Louis cautioned them to be quiet, 
and the boys remained perfectly motion- 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 239 

less for a long time. Apparently the 
paddlers on the river were finally con- 
vinced that the noise on the shore was 
caused by some prowling night animal, and 
they once more took up their work of 
rowing. When the splash of the oars was 
distinctly heard again, the four crouching 
boys breathed easier. 

While they waited thus in the bushes, 
a silent shadow seemed suddenly to drift 
before them. It came so silently and 
mysteriously that its uncanny effect made 
them shiver. It was hardly a shadow, or 
the reflection of a cloud, but a flitting of a 
dark body that made them blink in awe. 
They held their breath for an instant, and 
then, with a sigh of relief, they saw the 
reason for their fear. 

Directly in front of them, not a dozen 
yards away, moved, silently and mysteri- 
ously, a craft carrying several people. The 
shadows cast by the trees on the bank had 
hidden the boat and its occupants from 
view, and, even now, it shrouded them in 
such a gloom that they were hardly visi- 
ble. It was more like the substance of a 


240 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

dream than the reality which swept before 
them. If they had not heard the soft 
splashing of the paddles, the sudden ap- 
pearance of the ghostly craft would have 
stirred their fear and superstition. As it 
was, after the first startled impression of 
terror, they were jubilant at the sight, 
for the enemy was now in view, and 
the boat which they were paddling was 
not the one the boys had saved from 
the iceberg. It was too long and clumsy 
for their stanch little boat. Even in 
the darkness they could see that it was 
a clumsy, hand-made affair, half boat and 
half raft. 

The boat swept silently along the shore, 
and finally disappeared from view in the 
gloom. The watchers waited patiently 
until all was quiet again. Then Frank 
stirred in his cramped position in the mud 
and water, and said : 

“ It ’s not our boat after all.” 

“ No, they have n’t found it,” Louis re- 
sponded. “ But they ’re keeping a close 
watch along this shore for us. They ex- 
pect us to land somewhere along here.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 241 

“ Then let us get across the stream and 
hide somewhere before morning.” 

“ They ’ll soon be hunting on that side 
too for us.” 

“ You think it safer to stay here ? ” 

“ I ’m not so sure, but we certainly want 
to get back to our boat as soon as possi- 
ble. I think we could row faster than they 
could with that tub. In the event of a 
chase, we could show them how they pull 
an oar at old Sheffield.” 

“You’re right there, Louis. We’ll set 
them a stroke that will make them open 
their eyes.” 

When the silence of the place indicated 
perfect safety, the boys stole forth from 
their hiding-place, and Louis slowly led 
them back to their moored boat. By 
means of two large trees, placed at a cer- 
tain angle with the light from the top of 
the cliff, he was able to find the boat in the 
darkness, and in a few minutes they were 
seated in the craft, ready to push out into 
the stream. But before the rope could be 
unloosened, Warren suddenly exclaimed: 

“ Look ! They ’re crossing the stream!” 


242 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

A hundred yards up the river, the boat 
with the four men in it was pushing out 
from the shadows along the bank to the 
moonlit path of the water. It stood out 
so plainly and distinctly in the moonlight 
that the boys could count the figures pad- 
dling. It was so evident that they had 
exhausted their search on this side of the 
river, and were intent upon exploring the 
opposite bank, that Louis said, with a 
smile : 

“ I think for the present this is the 
safest side for us.” 

The boat with the men in it was headed 
up stream, instead of down, and conse- 
quently the boys decided to follow it under 
the shadow of their embankment. They 
did this slowly and noiselessly, paddling 
and listening by turns, as they proceeded. 

For a full hour they worked their way 
up stream, passing far beyond the bend 
which they had so recently used as a 
screen to cover their flank movement in 
crossing the river. Nothing was heard 
or seen of the other boat. Covered from 
view by the shadow of the trees opposite, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 243 

the craft on the other side moved either 
abreast or ahead or behind them. It did 
not appear again in the path of the moon. 
There was enough uncertainty in this to 
cause a little anxiety. The boys grew 
impatient, hoping to see the craft appear 
again to let them know where to look 
for it. 

Matters proceeded in this way for some 
time. Louis then said: “We must find 
some hiding-place before morning. They 
could easily discover us here in broad day- 
light.” 

“ What do you propose to do ? ” 

“ Either land and pull our boat up 
among the bushes to hide it, or find some 
little creek or ditch to row up.” 

“ Why not go up the stream as far as we 
can, and then hide in the woods ? ” 

“We’re several miles away from the 
ocean now, I judge, and I don’t care to 
get too far away.” 

“Then here’s just what we want!” 
Frank exclaimed. “ Here ’s a little creek 
that runs somewhere.” 

The boat pushed its nose into a narrow 


244 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

ditch, and with one accord the boys pad- 
died up it A few hundred yards brought 
them to a small brook of fresh water 
which fed the ditch, and gave an excuse 
for its existence. On every side dense 
growths of trees and underbrush made 
their hiding-place apparently secure. 

“ Here we camp for the night,” Louis 
whispered. “ We ’ll pull the boat up into 
the bushes.” 


CHAPTER XXII 


T hey needed no sentinel on duty. 

The shadows of the night, and the 
intense gloom of the woods, were their 
surest and best protection. Notwithstand- 
ing the noises of the wild animals and few 
night birds, they slept soundly, not once 
dreaming of the dangers which might 
lurk near them. The leaves and moss 
were soft and comfortably, and the over- 
turned boat formed a canopy to protect 
them from the night dew and fogs. 

It was bright morning when they 
stretched their limbs and lay for a few 
moments comfortably lazy in the cool 
air. The charm of a perfect day was 
dawning upon them. The sun’s rays 
were already filtering through the foliage 
to light up the moss and beds of flowers 
around them. Frank first spoke, saying, 
in a low voice: 


246 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Let ’s take a vote to see who goes to 
the brook to bring back a drink for all. 
I hear it gurgling, and it makes me 
thirsty.” 

“ For that matter, I ’ll get the water, if 
Frank will cook the breakfast,” Warren 
replied. 

“ I agree to it, if Harold will first find 
the breakfast to cook.” 

“ And I will accept my portion of labor, 
if Louis will tell me where to find the 
breakfast.” 

“Now it’s up to you, Louis. What 
shall we do.^ Speak, and your servants 
are ready to obey. I think we ’ll have a 
change of diet, for there are no clams to 
dig up here.” 

Louis shook his head. 

“ No, nor anything else that will satisfy 
a good appetite, unless it be some berries 
or a wild bird. Now if we had a gun.” 

“We haven’t; so we’ll set traps for 
the birds. I used to know how to make a 
snare. I ’ll try my hand at it now. But 
somebody first bring me a drink of that 
brook water.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 247 

“ I can’t fulfil my bargain until the rest 
of you do yours,” Warren said. “ But I ’m 
thirsty, and I ’ll taste of the water to see 
how good it is.” 

He climbed through the bushes and 
walked down toward the spring which 
fed the brook with its clear, pellucid water. 
The tinkling of the brook made a pleasant 
sound for a thirsty mortal, and Warren 
was soon kneeling by its side, heartily 
drinking of its cooling water. But a mo- 
ment later he hurried back to the camp 
with a white, scared face. Stepping quietly 
among the bushes, he whispered : 

“ We ’ve stumbled right on the drinking- 
place of our enemies. Their footprints 
are all around the spring, and there are 
old battered tin cans and bottles in the 
brook. Some of the tracks are fresh 
enough to have been made this morning.” 

Louis and Frank were on their feet in 
an instant. This piece of news was very 
unwelcome. Instead of sleeping a mile 
or two away from the men, they had, with- 
out knowing it, selected a camp close to 
them. There was one thought upper- 


248 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

most in their minds. They would leave 
the spot as quickly as they could. It was 
still early morning, and their opportunity 
to escape might not come again. 

“We must get out of here at once,” 
Louis said. “We ’ll pull up stakes before 
the men are awake.” 

He stooped as if to take hold of the 
boat to lift it from its position in the 
bushes; but a restraining hand held him 
from his purpose. Frank was pointing 
excitedly toward the brook. From out of 
the woods the head of a man appeared. 
At first they could see only a part of the 
hatless head, and then gradually the face 
and shoulders loomed up. It was the 
leader of the men who had followed them 
into the water, the one who had swum 
with such powerful strokes through the 
surf to help his comrade to capture the 
boat from the boys. 

This unwelcome sight brought a spasm 
of fear to the hearts of the boys ; but as 
they were still undiscovered, they crouched 
silently in their hiding-place. The burly 
man walked down to the brook, and, kneel- 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 249 

ing, took a long drink. Then filling a big 
can which he carried by a handle made 
of rope, he turned and retraced his steps. 
When the last echo of these was heard in 
the distance, Louis signalled to raise the 
boat. The four stooped over and picked 
the craft up in their arms, and walked as 
carefully toward the ditch as possible. 
The creaking of every twig and the rat- 
tling of each stone were magnified in their 
minds a thousandfold, and they expected 
every moment to hear the men rushing 
down upon them. 

But they reached the water in time, 
and launched their light craft. Then, for 
just a moment, they waited and listened. 
There was no unusual sound heard, and, 
with a sigh of relief, they pushed down 
the stream and were soon floating on the 
river again. 

“To think I did n’t get a taste of that 
water after all,” Frank whispered dis- 
mally, as the tension of their nerves was 
relieved. 

Warren laughed softly. “ It was fine 
water,” he said, smacking his lips. “ I ’ve 


250 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

never tasted better. I wish we had a 
bucketful here, so you could have some, 
Frank.” 

“ I ’ll have some yet,” Frank growled, 
“ if you live up to your contract. Louis 
will show Harold where to find some break- 
fast, and then we must have some fresh 
water to cook it in. You ’ve agreed to get 
the water.” 

“Yes — some water,” replied Warren, 
“ but not necessarily the water from that 
brook.” 

“ That was a part of the bargain, and 
we’ll hold you to it.” 

Warren looked dubiously across the 
stretch of river toward the place where 
they had so nearly run into the very men 
they had been trying to avoid. Then, 
shaking his head, he answered : 

“We ’ll put it to a vote. I ’ll go back 
to the brook if the majority say so. f’m 
not sneaking away from my duty.” 

“ Suppose we leave the matter open for 
the present, and turn to something more 
pressing,” Louis interrupted. “ What shall 
we do for a hiding-place where we can 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 251 

camp in safety, and even make a fire at 
night which will not be seen ? ” 

Yes, that’s the question! What shall 
we do?” exclaimed Frank, solemnly, for- 
getting the controversy with Warren. 

There was no answer to this. They 
floated up the stream with the tide, in anx- 
ious uncertainty. Then, as they rounded 
another bend in the river, a new feature of 
their experiences was unfolded to them, 
which, later, brought an answer to their 
query. 

A mile ahead a precipitous bluff seemed 
to cut off farther progress in that direction. 
The rocks came straight down to the 
water’s edge, and seemed to offer an effect- 
ual barrier to the river’s farther progress. 
But as the boat drifted on, the boys could 
see that, while the river was split and 
flowed in two directions by reason of this 
mountain of rocks, there were great cav- 
erns opening in the side into which emp- 
tied a part of the stream. 

Many of these caverns had been worn 
out of the rocks by the action of the water 
through countless centuries of activity. 


252 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Others had apparently been formed by 
geological disturbances of the earth in pre- 
historic times. A few were carved so 
curiously that it was hard to believe that 
the hand of man had nothing to do with 
their formation. 

The main or central one particularly 
attracted the attention of the astonished 
navigators. It was broader than a ship, 
and higher at the mouth than the tallest 
mast of a ship. It was formed into a 
great dome, whose interior was lost into 
the darkness, where the sunlight never 
appeared. Ragged pieces of rocks hung 
suspended from the ceiling, as if ready to 
fall at any moment; but they had in all 
probability been hanging there for ages. 
Stunted tree growths and sparse vegetable 
specimens clung in a precarious way to a 
few inches of soil collected in the rocky 
clefts. 

When the boat drifted down upon these 
strange caverns, the boys forgot the causes 
which had driven them to explore such an 
out-of-the-way corner of the world. They 
were gazing upon some of the most sublime 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 253 

creations of nature, and few human eyes 
had ever before seen them. For some 
time they drifted with the tide. Then, as 
the boat appeared unable to decide which 
way to go, feeling the impulse of two dis- 
tinct currents, Louis exclaimed : 

“Well row into the cavern, and try to 
find a hiding-place. Come, that is an 
answer to our question.” 

The grandeur of the queer formation of 
nature increased the wonder of the young 
navigators as they drew so near that they 
could study the small plants growing above 
the rocks. They plied their oars, and the 
boat was guided toward the middle open- 
ing in the rocks. The roof seemed so 
high here that it appeared like the mam- 
moth mouth of some huge antediluvian 
monster. The light gradually receded 
from view inside of the cavern, and when 
the boat drifted under the arched dome, the 
boys stopped rowing, a nameless fear sud- 
denly seizing them. This fear was voiced 
by Frank, who asked, in a fearsome tone : 

“ Suppose the tide drifts us in here and 
we can’t return } ” 


254 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Louis answered the question quickly: 
“ There is no danger. The current is 
very slight, and besides, when the tide 
falls, the current must carry us back.” 

With this reassurance, they permitted 
their boat to drift under the arched dome 
and penetrate the gloom beyond. As their 
eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, the 
cavern did not appear so gloom^y. They 
could study the outlines of the rocks over- 
head, and even watch the flashes of fishes 
leaping out of the water around them. The 
silvery light from the outside world, shining 
through the opening, formed strange, fan- 
tastic pictures around. The glint of this 
light on the waves was reflected in a mil- 
lion bright bars of gold and silver. 

“ How far shall we go ? ” asked Warren, 
in a low voice. 

“ Only far enough to find a hiding- 
place,” Louis answered. “ Then we can 
explore the cave some other day. I won- 
der how far it goes } ” 

“ How can we hide in a place like this.^” 
asked Harold. “ We can’t live in our boat 
forever.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 255 

“ No, we must find a landing-place. I 
hoped we could find some rock or shelf 
in here^ where we could camp in safety.” 

“ Don’t you suppose the men would look 
for us in here ? ” 

“ They might, but in the darkness they 
would have some trouble finding us. It 
would be a case of blind-man’s-buff, and 
we could hide as fast as they could dis- 
cover us.” 

The vaulted cavern gradually narrowed, 
and the roof sloped downward until a 
voice spoken above a whisper echoed like 
a shout in a megaphone. Frank said 
laughingly: “Well, we can’t cut up here 
much, or we’ll expose our hiding-place 
to every one. Even Warren’s breathing 
sounds like the snore of a man having a 
bad dream.” 

Louis, who had been trying hard to 
penetrate the gloom ahead, suddenly said : 
“ Wait ! Back water on your oars, and let 
me paddle her up on this side.” 

The boys, obedient to his orders, brought 
the boat slowly up toward the shelving wall 
of rock. In a few moments Louis could 


256 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

touch the wall with his hand. Then slowly 
working the boat along, he followed the 
rocks until he came to a sharp angle in 
them. There seemed to be a slight gleam 
of light ahead, and, following this, he soon 
came upon a secluded part of the cavern, 
lighted by a small opening from above. 
They could not see the crevice through 
which the faint light of day filtered, but 
it had the effect of producing a semi- 
gloom in the cavern which enabled the 
boys to see their surroundings. Louis 
exclaimed a little excitedly : 

“Here we are! Here’s an ideal place 
for our hiding camp I ” 

Directly ahead, almost under the rays 
of light, there was a rocky shelf which 
ran out into the water, forming a floor or 
landing, which offered every facility for 
camping. 

“ Eureka ! That ’s the place I ” shouted 
Warren and Harold. 

“ Don’t shout it to the men,” warned 
Frank. “ They ’ll find us quick enough.” 

They were so pleased with their camp- 
ing-place that they gave little heed to any 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 257 

danger that might result from their noisy 
talk, and, with an unnecessary amount of 
haste, they tumbled out upon the rocky 
shelf and anchored their boat. 

It was a better hiding-place than they 
had supposed. The rock formed a per- 
fectly level floor for them, and the angle 
in the wall shut off all views from the 
opening. The light overhead was bright 
enough to enable them to see what they 
were doing, and, as Frank remarked, they 
could even see to skin an eel, although he 
doubted about threading a needle. 

“ We can certainly build a fire here to 
cook by,” Warren said, and no one 
could see' the smoke or flames.” 

“ It ’s a little chilly here,” Harold re- 
marked, shivering. “ I wish we had a 
fire now.” 

“Yes, it is cold, and there are chunks of 
ice all around us,” answered Louis. “ Evi- 
dently the ice in here never melts. Some 
of the cakes have drifted in here from the 
ocean in winter, and they stay here until 
another winter.” 

“ Well, then, we won’t need any ice-box 


17 


258 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

to keep our things cold,” Frank replied. 
“ We ’ll have ice-water, too, in plenty. 
There are some advantages even in being 
cast adrift in this out-of-the-way corner of 
the world.” 

“ Yes, we might be much worse off. But 
now for breakfast ! I ’m nearly famished, 
and we must go hunting for something to 
eat.” 

“ Yes, and for wood for a fire.” 


/ 


CHAPTER XXIII 


T hey spent the rest of the day in fit- 
ting up their camp, stealing out from 
the mouth of the cavern at intervals to pick 
up wood and to find berries, wild fruits, 
game, and fish. They carried boat-loads 
of pine boughs and hemlock bushes back 
with them. These they piled up on the 
rocky floor for beds. They made soft and 
aromatic beds which were a luxury to 
recline upon. With plenty of dry wood 
collected, they started a fire, and then rowed 
outside of the cave to see if either the 
smoke or reflection of the flames could 
attract the attention of the men. The 
smoke evidently found its way up the nat- 
ural chimney through which the light 
streamed, and then gradually lost itself in 
the distance. The angle in the rocky wall 
was so sharp and deep that no reflection 
of the flames on the water could be seen. 


26o The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ We are safe for the present/’ Louis 
decided, after a thorough investigation on 
all sides. “ I think we can sleep to-night 
in safety.” 

“ I for one shall enjoy it,” Warren said. 
“ After discovering this morning that we 
had been sleeping close to the men last 
night, I felt that I would n’t want to close 
my eyes again for a week. Now we have 
a pretty good supply of food. What a 
variety, too ! Here ’s fish, quail, duck, 
mountain blackberries, dewberries, and 
something else which has no name, and 
which we don’t dare eat, although I know 
it ’s delicious.” 

“You prove it, and we’ll accept your 
word for it,” Frank added. “ If it kills you, 
Warren, we’ll give you a decent sailor’s 
burial.” 

“ Not in this dark water,” shuddered 
Warren. “ I ’d rather have a land burial.” 

“ Oh, for that matter you can have your 
choice! We’ll take you up to the top of 
the mountain at night-time and cut out a 
sarcophagus for you.” 

There was one thing they lacked. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 261 

There was no fresh water near their camp- 
ing-place. The stream of water around 
them was too salty to use except for cook- 
ing purposes. They explored the country 
in all directions for fresh water, and toward 
night it looked very much as if they would 
have to return to the spring near which 
they had slept the previous night. Al- 
though this was located close to the camp- 
ing-place of the strange wreckers, they 
would make the effort to secure some of 
its cooling water under the cover of dark- 
ness, if no other spring or stream presented 
itself. But the necessity of running this 
risk was dispensed with toward night, 
when, by mere accident, they discovered 
the trickling waters of a rivulet which 
flowed through the rocks into the cavern. 
They were thus enabled to get their supply 
of drinking water without venturing out- 
side of their dark hiding-place. 

“ If we only had a back entrance to our 
home now, we should be all right,” Frank 
remarked, after the discovery of the water. 
“ The men will in time watch the entrance 
and find us.” 


262 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ But we are not going to stay here for- 
ever,” Warren replied. 

“ No, indeed, I want to get back to the 
ocean and find a ship,” Harold quickly 
added. 

“ A ship may appear almost any time, 
and down here in this cavern we could 
never see it to signal for help.” 

“ I Ve been thinking seriously of that 
myself,” Louis said slowly. “We must 
find some way out of the difficulty, even if 
we have to row down the coast and get 
beyond the reach of these men.” 

“ That is what I propose we do in a few 
days.” 

“ It is all that we can do. But first I 
should like to make another trip up to the 
false beacon light and smash it.” 

“Yes, I’m anxious to do something of 
that kind, too,” responded Louis, with a 
grim smile. “ I ’m thinking the Northern 
Star be cruising around in these waters 
for a time, and I should hate to see her lost 
on these rocks.” 

The suggestion of such a possibility 
brought sudden silence on the group. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 263 

They had thought little of the vessel they 
had so recently left, so great had been the 
excitement of their adventures ; but this 
remark recalled vividly the past. Harold 
heaved a sigh, and said, after a long pause : 
“ I wonder where the schooner is now ! ” 

“ Somewhere not far from here, ” Louis 
answered. “ I know that.” 

“ Your father must be worried to death,” 
Frank replied. “In our case, our folks 
know nothing about our being lost, but 
Captain Pendleton must feel the burden 
heavily.” 

“Yes, he is suffering more than we are, 
for we know that we are safe at present, 
while he is in doubt.” 

That night the boys spent in camp. 
Inside of their cave they built a roaring 
fire which cast a light around on the 
rocks, making everything as bright as day. 
Far across the waters the flicker of the 
camp-fire shone. Within its magic circle 
the boys clustered, watching the play of 
the flames and the shadows on the rocks, 
and telling over again, with new zest, the 
stories of their school pranks. They had 


264 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

finished a supper of fish, duck, and fruit, 
which, though not as varied a diet as they 
might have selected at home, offered them 
all the nourishment and satisfaction that 
tired limbs and bodies desired. 

There was no time with them. The 
sun had long since disappeared, and the 
moon was riding high in the heavens, but 
it was all the same in the dark recesses of 
the cave. In the glow of the morning sun, 
darkness would still hover around them, 
and they would scarcely know of the change 
from night to day. It was in reality long 
past midnight, when they finally threw 
themselves down in the glow of the fire, 
and slept. The chill of the cave was 
intense at night, but the fire warmed their 
bodies, so they slept with comparative 
comfort. Twice in the night Louis roused 
himself and fed the fire with more fuel. 
He listened intently for any alarming noise, 
and walked around the narrow circle of 
their rocky camp, to see if all was well. 
Then he turned in again, and slept with 
the others. 

It was a night of sound and refreshing 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 265 

rest to the boys. A sense of security pos- 
sessed them, which enabled them to roll 
over, time and again, to renew their half- 
disturbed slumber. Even when they were 
finally roused by the declining of their 
fire, they lazily lolled around and fed the 
fire with sticks. Breakfast was served, 
somewhere between morning and noon, 
but no one knew exactly when. 

Finally they were all astir and ready for 
the day’s w^ork. Frank asked, tossing the 
last stick into the fire : “ Well, what shall 
we do to-day ? Explore this cave, or go 
out and hunt up our men ? ” 

“We’ll first lay in a new stock of fire- 
wood and provisions, ” Louis responded. 
“ Did n’t you just use the last stick ? ” 

“ That ’s work, and I know we ’ve got 
to do it; but what are we going to do in 
the way of pleasure ? ” 

“ If we get back in time, we’ll explore 
the cave, but first let ’s get through with 
the work.” 

“ Oh, you ’re a regular slave-driver, 
Louis,” protested Frank. “ Why not have 
some fun, and then do the work later.i^” 


266 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ Fine advice from you, Frank ! How 
would it apply, next winter, to your foot- 
ball team ? I shall remember it.” 

“This is n’t wintertime; it’s vacation,” 
promptly came the reply. Nevertheless, 
Frank was one of the most eager in the 
pursuit of firewood and game an hour 
later, when they pushed out of the cave, 
and hunted around in the woods and 
waters for their necessities. The sun was 
past the noon meridian before they 
emerged from the cavern, and they were 
astonished at the lateness of the day. 
There would be little time left for ex- 
ploring the cave, if they were to gather 
their food and fuel before sundown. The 
days were short, and the nights long; 
and there were few hours left them to 
work in. 

Game and fish both appeared wary and 
hard to find that day. Even the dry wood 
seemed distributed in places hard to dis- 
cover, and they spent hours in loading 
their boat. Frank and Warren were on 
one of the highest points of the cliffs toward 
sunset, when the latter suddenly dropped 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 267 

his burden of berries, and some wild fruit 
he had been gathering in the woods. 

“Frank! Frank!” he shouted in his 
eagerness. 

“ What ’s the matter ?” exclaimed Frank, 
emerging from a clump of trees. “ Do 
you want to attract the attention of the 
men across the river ? You ’ll do it, shout- 
ing like that!” 

“ Come, and look here ! ” replied Warren, 
not noticing Frank’s words of warning. 
He was dancing up and down, and waving 
his hands frantically over his head. 

“ Well, of all antics I ever saw — ” began 
Frank, and then he, too, started a war-dance. 

His eyes had suddenly caught sight of 
the ocean from a commanding position on 
the summit of the hill, and he instantly 
saw what had aroused Warren’s enthu- 
siasm. There in the distance was the clear 
outline of a sail, sparkling in the sunlight, 
and pointed directly toward the coast. It 
was a large three-masted schooner with 
every sail set. There was a strong breeze 
blowing, and the boat was easily making 
ten or twelve knots an hour. 


268 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

The two boys executed a war-dance on 
the rocky cliff, and acted otherwise, as if 
they had suddenly been bereft of their 
senses. 

It ’s the Northern Star^^ said Frank, 
finally, gasping for breath. 

“ I knew it when I first clapped eyes 
on her,” Warren answered positively. 
“ I'd know her a thousand miles away.'’ 

“ It would n’t matter whether it was or 
not,” Frank said. “ So long as it is a ship, 
we can get on board of her.” 

“ But will she come up to take us away ? ” 

“ I don’t know. But we ’ll signal her. 
Run down and tell Louis and Harold. I ’ll 
climb a tree, and put up a signal. No, 
I ’ll stay here, and wave my hat until they 
come to rescue us.” 

In the eyes of the boys there was no 
possible excuse for the ship not sailing 
directly toward the coast and rescuing them 
from their uncomfortable exile ; but when 
Warren started down the cliff to summon 
Louis and Harold, Frank nearly tumbled 
off his tree at the sight of the ship deliber- 
ately turning her nose around, and pointing 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 269 

toward the sea again. Then he realized 
that she had merely been sailing toward 
the coast on a long tack, and that she 
would not approach it again until she had 
covered many miles. The tears of chagrin 
and disappointment started in his eyes. 
To be so near rescue, and then have it 
postponed or thwarted entirely was too 
much for him. His spirits underwent a 
change which left him depressed and 
discouraged. 

Ten minutes later, the rest of the boys 
found him seated at the foot of the tree 
from whose branches he was going to 
signal the passing ship. 

“It’s no good,” he said dolefully. “They 
turned out to sea before I could attract 
their attention. We’re doomed to stay 
here forever, I guess. If we only had a 
gun now, we might attract their attention.” 

“ It ’s the Northern Star, Louis, and I 
discovered her first,” Warren said, hardly 
yet conscious of the disappointment that 
overwhelmed Frank. 

“ No, that is n’t the Northern Star,'' 
Louis replied emphatically. 


270 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ But I say it is, and Frank does, too,” 
Warren answered sharply. 

“I guess I know the Northern Star by 
this time. That ’s some big sealer up here, 
and she ’s hunting around for ice floes, that 
may have seals on them. She may cruise 
back and forth here for a week.” 

“ Then all hope has n’t gone yet,” Frank 
remarked, brightening up and glancing 
inquiringly toward the speaker. 

“ No, our hope is good until the summer 
is over. Then, if we are not picked up, it 
will go hard with us. The winter up here 
is a pretty tough proposition. I don’t 
know whether we could live through it or 
not.” 

“ But that is a long time off yet.” 

“Not so many weeks as you think. 
Winter comes here early, and summer 
goes like the snuff of a candle. Some day 
the sun will darken, and the snow clouds 
will gather in the skies, and the mercury 
will drop ten degrees a day, until — ” 

“ — until we ’re frozen stiff,” solemnly 
added Frank. 

Louis nodded his head, and the others 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 271 

said nothing. They strained their eyes 
toward the disappearing schooner, which 
was now fast sailing out on the sea and 
making a long tack down the coast. 

“ She won’t come around for an hour,” 
Louis ventured to predict. 

Then it will be dark, and it won’t do us 
any good.” 

Harold turned his eyes from the sail to 
the cliff opposite the one on which they 
were standing, and then said excitedly : 

“ There are the wreckers ! They ’ve 
caught sight of the sail too, and they ’re 
trying to attract her attention.” 

The four boys instinctively withdrew to 
the shadow of the trees. The four men 
were standing around their improvised 
beacon tower, looking toward the ocean. 
They had undoubtedly been as much ex- 
cited by the appearance of the ship as the 
boys, and they were utterly oblivious to 
everything around them. 

“ They ’re wondering how they can catch 
their prey,” Louis muttered. “I believe 
a storm is coming up, and if this ship 
was caught off here, it would be at- 


272 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

tracted by the false beacon light of these 
men. They ’re figuring on that, mark my 
word!” 

The wind, which had been blowing hard 
all day, had filled the sky with scurrying 
clouds, and as the sun set there were many 
indications of a storm. The ship in the 
distance had noticed this, and while the 
boys watched, her sails were shortened, 
and preparations made for struggling 
through a heavy wind. 

When the boys last saw her, she was still 
headed seaward, sailing rapidly along un- 
der short sails. Then darkness swept her 
from view, and the boys turned away, with 
bitter disappointment, to their task in hand. 
They gathered up their day’s spoils and 
returned to their boat. Inside of their cave 
home they built a roaring fire, and tried to 
calm their perturbed spirits by feasting on 
the good things they had captured in woods 
and water. 


CHAPTER XXIV 


B ut the night was not one calculated 
to soothe the spirits of restless mor- 
tals. The storm was in the air, and, even 
in their cave home, the boys breathed it, 
and felt it. There was an intoxicating 
elixir in the air, which made them restless 
and moody. When the first roar of the 
wind came, its queer noise, echoing in the 
great caverns, startled them ; but becoming 
accustomed to this in time, they paced 
their narrow ledge of rocks until they 
could stand it no longer. Louis finally 
said : 

“ I ’m going up on the cliff again to see 
if that ship is in sight. The rest of you 
need n’t go if you are afraid of getting wet.” 

“ I was going to propose the same thing 
an hour ago,” Frank replied. “ I can’t 
stand it down here to-night. The air seems 
oppressive. I must see what ’s happening 
up there.” 

i8 


274 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ I ’m going too,” Warren added. “ I ’m 
as restless as any of you.” 

“ Well, you can count me in,” was 
Harold’s answer. “ I ’m no camp stew- 
ard to stay behind in this dark place such 
a night as this.” 

This unanimous decision of action 
brought about some quick work. Within 
five minutes after Louis’s remark, the four 
boys were in their boat, ready to pull out 
from their underground home. It was 
dark, intensely dark, in the cavern, and 
outside it was not much better. There was 
no star or moon shining, and the clouds 
completely enveloped the earth and sky. 
They paddled the boat along by following 
the side of the rocky wall, and they were 
not conscious of leaving the mouth of the 
cave until a dash of rain was flung into 
their faces. Then, with coats buttoned up 
to chin, they pulled along until they 
reached a favorable landing-place at the 
foot of the cliff. 

“ Nobody will come around hunting for 
our boat on such a night as this,” Louis 
said, as he tied the rope to a tree. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 275 

They left the craft moored safely near 
an overhanging boulder, and stole silently 
through the darkness toward the top of 
the cliff. The wind and rain beat wildly 
around them, dashing in their faces, and 
making progress slow and painful. It was 
a night such as the bleak Labrador coast 
alone could witness, and the boys more 
than once felt awed and terrified under it. 
All around them, the woods and rocks of 
the bleak cliffs echoed and trembled with 
the deafening crashes of thunder, while 
each zigzag course of the electric fluid re- 
vealed a landscape bathed in a deluge of 
rain. 

There was no animal life stirring. All 
living creatures had sought shelter, in 
terror, escaping from the storm in hidden 
crevices and caves where the fury of the 
elements could not reach them. The boys 
were the only living specks on the great 
scene, and they toiled so slowly and ner- 
vously forward that at times they seemed 
only a part of the rocks and woods around. 

Every foot they climbed upward, the 
fiercer grew the wind and rain. Exposed 


276 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

finally to the unobstructed sweep of the 
storm on the summit, they clung to each 
other for fear they might be carried over 
the precipice. 

“ I don’t like this,” gasped Harold, cling- 
ing to a tree. “ I think our cave home is 
better on a night like this.” 

“ I ’m changing my mind, too,” Warren 
replied. 

“ But we must see the ocean first,” 
Louis answered, starting once more for- 
ward. “We ’re nearly to the edge of the 
cliff where we were early in the evening. 
Over here — ” 

“ Look ! There ’s a light ! ” exclaimed 
Frank. 

All eyes were directed toward the sea. 
Through the curtain of darkness, they 
could see the occasional flash of a light. 
It was faint and glimmering in the far 
distance, but it was unmistakable. It was 
the light from a ship approaching the 
shore. 

“ She ’s turning back,” Louis said, “ and 
I ’ll bet she ’s trying to find a safe harbor. 
This storm is too heavy for her! ” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 277 

“ There ’s the beacon light down there ! 
See, it is flashing out ! ” 

“ I understand it now. The ship has 
caught sight of the light, and she is head- 
ing shoreward to find out what it means. 
Listen ! Was that thunder ? ” 

“ It sounded like a gun ! ” 

“ It was, and from the ship. I saw a 
flash at the same time.” 

Louis tightened his hold on his sup- 
port, and, with bent head, waited and 
listened. The report of the gun was 
heard again. The distress signal boomed 
over the waters as clearly as the echo of 
the thunder from the clouds. For some 
time the boys remained silent. The howl- 
ing of the storm, and the sight of the 
flashing lights, were indications of an ap- 
proaching tragedy that made them trem- 
ble with excitement. Every time the gun 
boomed forth above the roar of the storm, 
they started and tightened their hold on 
each other. 

“We must stop it!” muttered Louis, 
hoarsely, after a long pause. “ We must 
help them I ” 


278 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ How ? What can we do ? ” gasped 
Frank. 

“ That light on the cliff across the water 
is deceiving them. It is leading them on 
the rocky point. We must demolish it 
before it is too late. Their only hope is 
to run out to sea again, and try to ride 
the storm. It ’s death and destruction 
here ! ” 

“ Then we must cross the river, and 
fight the men } ’* 

“We must destroy that light. We have 
no time to lose. It is nearly too late now. 
Come ! " 

There was no questioning this com- 
mand, for it was virtually an order which 
not one of the boys could disobey. Vi- 
sions of the Northern Star being lured 
upon a rock-bound coast by a false light 
were floating before the eyes of Louis, 
and this lent him strength and desire to 
reach the obnoxious beacon light of the 
wreckers before the ill-fated ship should 
be lost. 

Down through the woods he plunged, 
followed closely by the others. They 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 279 

stumbled over wet logs and trees, and 
slipped in the darkness on smooth stones 
and boulders ; but these mishaps had no 
power to cool the ardor of their spirits. 
In places it was so dark that they had to 
stop in bewilderment until the next flash 
of lightning should reveal the way to them. 
Finally they reached the edge of the stream 
and found their boat where they had 
moored it. 

“ Hurry ! Hurry ! ” urged Louis, as the 
boys stumbled into their places. “We 
must pull hard for the other shore.” 

“ But is n’t it rough in mid-stream ? ” 
asked one of them. “ The storm has made 
the waves bigger than I ever saw them on 
a river.” 

“Yes, but we can’t stop for that. We 
must cross at once, and then get on the 
lee side of the opposite bank.” 

They pulled a strong oar, and sent the 
boat flying through the water, cutting 
through the darkness like a knife; but 
soon they encountered white-capped waves 
which the wind had whipped into angry 
foam. The boat bobbed and thrashed 


28o The Mysterious Beacon Light 

around in the waves, and for a time, be- 
tween the rain and wind, it was doubtful 
if they could proceed. 

“ Pull away ! ” shouted Louis. “ A few 
more strokes, and we ’ll get under this 
bluff.” 

True to his word, he steered the craft 
directly across the narrow stream, and 
then close to the opposite side, where an 
embankment protected them from the fury 
of wind and waves. It was comparatively 
easy rowing within the shadow of the 
bank, and the water was calm enough to 
permit rowing without constantly having 
the oars dipped by long rolling swells. 

There was no apparent abatement in 
the storm when they reached a sheltered 
anchorage on the opposite bank, and the 
dismal booming of the guns from the ship 
in distress could be heard at long inter- 
vals. The sound of the guns indicated 
that the ship was rapidly approaching the 
coast, and that its captain was being de- 
ceived by the false light into the belief 
that there was a safe anchorage and harbor 
inside of the point. It was all such a 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 281 

picture of terror and horror that the boys 
had scarcely any words to say, as they 
toiled away to reach the scene of the 
beacon with but one purpose in mind. 

They were not so familiar with this side 
of the bank, and they stumbled about in 
the bushes and rocks with more disastrous 
results to their clothes and limbs than on 
their side of the river. However, the rays 
of light ahead guided them, and they toiled 
upward, unmindful of the impediments in 
the way. Not until they had reached the 
summit of the cliff did they realize that 
they were undertaking a mission that re- 
quired more pluck and nerve than merely 
climbing a steep hill in the dark stormy 
night. The beacon would undoubtedly be 
guarded by the four men. They would 
have to be outwitted or boldly repulsed. 

When they came in close view of the 
false light, Louis stopped. Turning toward 
his companions, he said : 

“We must rush the light! That must 
be destroyed and knocked down at all 
hazards. Then we can look out for our- 
selves, or, if necessary, fight the men. But 


282 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

if we attack them first, they might be able 
to repulse us. So remember the light is 
the first thing to attack. If we can de- 
stroy that before the ship goes on the 
rocks, we can save her.” 

Once more, when they halted within a 
few yards of the strange light, Louis said: 
“ We must climb up the tree to get at the 
light. There ’s a rude ladder leading up 
to it. The man turning the barrel with 
the light in it must be up there on the 
platform. If he ’s alone, I can handle him ; 
but if—” 

“ I ’ll go up with you, Louis,” Frank an- 
swered. “ Let Warren and Harold watch 
below, and help us if they can ; but we 
must make sure of the light.” 

“You’re right, Frank. Two are better 
than one up there. We ’ll destroy the 
ladder behind us, so no one can follow 
after.” 

“ But how about getting down again, if 
you burn your bridges behind you ? ” asked 
Warren. 

“ We’ll jump, and trust to luck that we 
land all right. It ’s only ten feet from the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 283 

lowest limb. When we jump, you and 
Harold be ready to help us if the men are 
around.” 

“ All right ! We ’ll make a flank attack 
on them with clubs,” Warren replied. 

Louis stooped and fumbled around in 
the soil at his feet. When he rose again 
he handed several stones as big as his fist 
to Frank. 

“ Put these in your pocket,” he said. 
“ They may help us out of a bad hole. If 
besieged from below, a few rocks dropped 
down on their heads might rout the enemy 
quicker than anything.” 

“ I ’ve already provided myself with 
a few,” Frank answered. “ I ’ll give a 
good account of myself. Now are you 
ready ? ” 

“Yes! But don’t make a break for 
the ladder until we are discovered. A 
little caution now is worth more than a 
good deal of boldness later. If we can 
reach the ladder without being discovered, 
we shall have a better chance of taking 
the fort with a rush.” 

While Warren and Harold hid in the 


284 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

bushes at a safe distance from the beacon 
light, Frank and Louis slowly worked their 
way noiselessly toward the tree on whose 
sawed off top the rude wooden platform 
and revolving barrel, with the light inside, 
were built. The roar of the wind and 
storm was such that their approach could 
not have been heard had they tramped 
boldly along. Caution, however, made 
them vigilant, and each step was carefully 
considered. 

When they passed beyond the circle of 
light cast by the beacon, they stepped 
more quickly, and soon reached the side 
of the huge tree-trunk. It was a mam- 
moth spruce-tree that had withstood the 
storms and winds of the bleak coast for 
upward of half a century. The rude lad- 
der was fastened against the trunk, lead- 
ing up to the first branches. The two 
boys climbed this carefully, and soon 
found themselves among the branches of 
the tree, directly under the queer light. 
Pieces of wood were nailed on the side of 
the tree to make easy climbing the rest of 
the way, and Louis carefully searched these 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 285 

out with his hands and mounted, step by 
step, toward their goal. 

But when close to the platform above, 
he stopped, and laid a restraining hand 
on Frank’s shoulder. Above them, in the 
light cast by the revolving lamp, were the 
four wreckers, seated on a wooden railing. 
One of them was engaged in turning a 
crank, which the boys knew must cause the 
barrel to revolve. The light inside of the 
barrel was burning fitfully in the breeze, 
fed by one of the men occasionally with 
oil and blubber. 

They were very quiet, with eyes turned 
toward the ocean, where the lights from 
the doomed ship were approaching closer 
every minute to the fatal rocks. They 
were so intent upon watching their prey 
that they thought little of any danger near 
them. 

For a few moments Louis and Frank 
remained perfectly quiet in the tree, de- 
bating within their minds what course 
to adopt. They had not prepared for 
such an emergency as confronted them. 
Here were all four men, ready to resent 


286 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

their interference. Moreover, they had 
the advantage of being securely seated 
on the platform, while the boys would 
have to climb up to it to get even a 
foothold. 


CHAPTER XXV 


T he indecision of the two boys in 
the tree was prolonged for some 
time. They were too close to the men 
to whisper instructions to each other, 
and any communication they desired had 
to be carried on by signs. The men 
above were as quiet as the boys. They 
were intently watching their prey ap- 
proaching the rocks, and they had no 
thought of any danger near them. Once 
or twice the leader of the wreckers grunted 
some muffled words of instruction to his 
companions, but neither Frank nor Louis 
could understand them. 

Meanwhile, the booming of the ship’s 
gun of distress was growing alarmingly 
near and frequent. Louis looked through 
the branches toward the sea, and his heart 
misgave him. It seemed that the ship 
must be so close to the outer point of 


288 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

rocks that their effort to rescue it was 
too late. He gave a slight groan under 
his breath, and the men above stirred un- 
easily at the sound, as if fearing some 
danger from out of the blackness of the 
night. Their guilty consciences made 
them more fearful of an unknown, uncer- 
tain danger than of something tangible 
which they could see and feel. 

Suddenly Louis touched Frank on the 
arm, and proceeded to climb, beckoning 
him to follow. There was a large branch 
of the tree, which towered on one side 
above the queer beacon light, that the men 
had not cut down. Louis slowly worked 
his way along toward this branch, and 
then climbed up until he was above the 
platform on which the men were crouch- 
ing. From his vantage-point he could 
study the revolving barrel with its light 
burning inside, and, at the same time, 
shield himself with the foliage. 

When Frank climbed up behind Louis, 
the limb groaned and creaked under their 
combined weight. The storm of wind 
and rain was bending and swaying the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 289 

limb back and forth so that the two boys 
had difficulty in holding to it. With the 
heavy weight of Frank and Louis added 
to its burden, the limb threatened every 
minute to break. 

The queer actions of the giant limb at- 
tracted the attention of the men. They 
looked up at its leafy head, and then out 
into the blackness of the storm. They 
had not caught sight of the boys, and 
they attributed the violent actions of the 
big limb to the wind. This had increased 
somewhat, and the men had difficulty in 
keeping their beacon light going. They 
fed it frequently with seal fat and some 
liquid which had the odor of oil. In a 
few moments they grew accustomed to 
the swaying of the limb over their heads, 
and they once more turned their attention 
to the ship in distress. 

In climbing this limb, Louis had no 
definite plan of action in mind. He saw 
that, by getting above the men, he would 
have a better opportunity to study out a 
plan of action. He could drop down 
upon them, or pelt them with stones 
19 


290 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

from above; but, whether this was the 
best thing to do, he was not yet satisfied. 

When he saw how violently the wind 
swayed the big branch, the thought en- 
tered his mind that a good way to demol- 
ish the false beacon light, and rout the 
men, would be to have the limb break 
and crash down upon the barrel and plat- 
form. Every gust of wind threatened to 
do this, but for some reason it failed quite 
to do the necessary work. They remained 
in this position for some time, and then 
Louis slowly began to work his way down 
again. As he passed Frank, he made a 
sign for him to remain. 

Nothing but the noise of the storm 
ever saved him from betraying his pres- 
ence to the wreckers. Even the cracking 
of a thick twig was thought by them to be 
the result of the wind rushing through 
the foliage of the trees. Slowly but surely 
Louis descended until he was on the 
ground again. Then, hurrying to the 
place where Warren and Harold were hid- 
ing, he explained matters. 

“ You must follow me,” he added, “and 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 291 

when the limb breaks be ready to save 
yourself. It can’t stand the combined 
weight of all four of us, and it will fall 
directly across the platform.” 

Warren and Harold had watched the 
ascent of Louis and Frank, and they had 
been wondering what kept them from 
making an attack on the light. When 
Louis told them that they were needed 
above, they quickly sprang from their 
positions in the bushes and prepared to 
follow him. There was more excitement, 
if more danger, in joining with Frank and 
Louis in the attack, and they were ready 
for any emergency. 

All three boys climbed the tree carefully. 
Louis led the way, and gave the warning 
when to rest and keep perfectly quiet. 
When the wind blew with special violence 
through the tree, cracking and snapping 
the branches and twigs, they climbed up- 
ward quickly to take advantage of the 
noise and commotion. In this way they 
passed the line of light which shone directly 
upon the wreckers squatted on their rude 
platform. 


292 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

When they reached the place where 
Frank was clinging to the big limb, Louis 
once more took the lead, passing Frank, 
and climbing far out on the limb. The 
wood groaned under the combined weight 
of the four boys, and they had to wait until 
the wind subsided somewhat. During a 
momentary lull in the storm, they worked 
their way far out on the limb, until they 
hung almost directly over the beacon. 
There they rested and waited. The limb 
had all the weight it could carry. A dozen 
pounds more would break it. The boys 
clung to it, eagerly and expectantly. An- 
other heavy gust of wind would probably 
throw them to the ground, or at least to 
the platform beneath. Their work would 
be accomplished in breaking the limb. 
Then they were to save themselves as best 
they could by clutching at any available 
object. 

They had before now broken off the 
tops of trees by throwing their weight 
upon them to fall to the ground, and this 
boyish pleasure prepared them for a greater 
emergency than had ever before confronted 







The Mysterious Beacon Light 293 

them. The darkness around made the 
feat more difficult, and they looked with a 
little fear at the shadowy branches, which 
seemed to flit around in an uncertain way. 

The lull in the storm lasted for half a 
minute. Then a blast of wind struck the 
tree, and swayed the branch up and down. 
Following this came others in quick suc- 
cession, until the limb was swaying back 
and forth like a ship’s mast in a storm. It 
whipped and thrashed around, some of the 
smaller limbs actually touching the barrel. 

Then a stronger gale than usual struck 
it. There was a groan, followed by a 
sharp snap and a crash which seemed to 
obliterate the very noise of the storm. 
The big limb, as large around as one’s 
body, had broken off close to the trunk, 
and with the combined weight of the four 
boys and the heavy pressure of the wind, it 
went crashing downward like an avalanche 
of earth. It struck the barrel and flung 
it to the earth in a dozen pieces, scattering 
the burning wood and oil in all directions. 
When it reached the platform, built in the 
fork of the old tree, it smashed it to pieces, 


294 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

and carried the frightened wreckers down 
with it. There was a complete demolition 
of the whole outfit of the wreckers. 

But the boys had no time to stop and 
look at the result of their work. They 
knew that their lives were in danger, and 
that they would have to save themselves 
in some way. Being prepared for the 
accident, they stood ready to take advan- 
tage of every opportunity. Frank caught 
a swaying limb from another tree in his 
descent, and landed safely on the ground 
by climbing down it. Warren struck the 
platform heavily, and, when it crumbled to 
pieces under his feet, he clutched at the 
trunk of the tree, and managed to break 
his fall, so that he was not hurt. Harold 
was stunned by coming in contact with 
one of the pieces of flying wood, but, after 
landing in a bed of wet moss and leaves, 
he recovered himself in a few moments, 
and started to find his companions. 

Louis was farther out on the limb than 
any of the others, and he reached the 
ground first; but in passing the platform 
his heels came in violent contact with the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 295 

head of one of the wreckers. The blow 
stunned the man, and tumbled him head- 
first off the platform. This helped to 
break the fall of Louis, and, finding that he 
could make a jump for the tree-trunk, he 
released his hold and landed among the 
lower branches of the tree. When he cau- 
tiously descended to the ground he could 
hear the groans of some one near him. 

Turning to ascertain who it was, he was 
confronted by one of the wreckers, who 
rose from the grass almost in front of him. 
Louis turned his back on him, so that he 
could not see his face. The man grunted 
and called a name. Louis grumbled back 
an inaudible reply, and quickly disappeared 
in the darkness. When he reached the 
tree where the boys had decided to rally 
as soon as possible after the accident, Louis 
found Frank already there. 

“ Hurt much, Frank ? ” he asked eagerly. 

“ No, only a few scratches. Are you ? ” 

“Sound as a dollar. How about the 
others ? ” 

“ Here comes Warren now. He can 
report himself.” 


296 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Warren stole in from the open space 
around the tree, and beyond a few minor 
injuries he reported all right. It was some 
time before Harold appeared. He could 
not recover from the blow on his head for 
some time, and he staggered toward the 
tree uncertainly. 

“What is it, Harold Anything seri- 
ous } Any bones broken ? ” 

“ No,” he said slowly. “ I think I ’m all 
right except my head. I struck that in 
my fall, and it feels queer yet.” 

“ Almost as bad as if you had been 
bucking the centre line of Amherst’s team,” 
replied Frank. “ Well, that does n’t kill, 
but it does hurt one’s feelings for a time, 
and takes the game out of one.” 

“ Humph ! ” snorted Harold. “ Amherst’s 
centre is nothing to that tree I struck. 
You don’t know anything about it!” 

“ Did n’t I have a brush with the same 
tree ? ” Frank asked. 

But there was no opportunity for reply. 
The fire made by the fallen barrel and oil 
had suddenly been extinguished by the 
rain, and the intense darkness of the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 297 

scene suddenly recalled the boys to a 
sense of their danger. There was a noise 
in the bushes near by which indicated the 
presence of the wreckers. Out of the 
darkness of the storm there came a growl, 
and a voice said : 

“ I tell you I saw them ! One of them 
tumbled past me with the tree, and his 
foot hit me on the head. Ain’t I got his 
hoof-prints there now ? ” 

“ How could they be up the tree ? ” 
asked another voice, sceptically. 

“ I ain’t explainin’ nothin’,” shortly an- 
swered the first. “ But I seen ’em, an’ 
they must be roun’ here somewhere. 
Likely ’s not they got killed in the fall, 
an’ we ’ll find their bodies in the bushes.” 

“ Then kick around, an’ if you find ’em 
holler to me.” 

Louis gave a silent signal to hide in the 
bushes, and the four boys crouched in as 
small a space as possible. In a few mo- 
ments they could hear the heavy tread of 
the searchers, and occasionally there was 
a loud crash from a club with which they 
beat the bushes after their prey. 


298 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Nearer and nearer the men approached, 
beating around in a circle which rapidly 
narrowed toward the hiding boys. It 
seemed as if their presence would be 
discovered, when the man, within a few 
yards of them, stopped, and swore loudly. 

“ That blanked ship ’s turnin’ around 
an’ goin’ out to sea again. Can’t we 
make a bonfire, and get her back ? ” 

“ No, she ’s taken the alarm, an’ we ’ll 
have to let her go.” 

“ Then we ’ll hunt up these rascals, an’ 
fix ’em. They did it!” 

There was a savage intonation in the 
voice of the man which added terror to 
the anxiety of the boys. They knew 
that the wreckers, disappointed in their 
game, would not stop short of murder 
to get revenge. The men were almost 
convinced by this time that the boys 
had, in some way, helped to destroy their 
primitive beacon light. It would certainly 
go hard with them if they fell into their 
hands. 

And to fall into their hands they seemed 
doomed, for with a renewal of the search, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 299 

the men beat the bushes vindictively and 
with more care. 

At this juncture Louis felt that their 
only hope lay in retreating. If not able 
to cope with the men in a battle, they 
certainly had a fair show of outrunning 
them, although even in this form of ath- 
letics he was not so sure of their superi- 
ority. The way the men had chased 
them down the beach, and swum out 
through the breakers after their boat, 
made him realize that they were no poor 
runners and swimmers. Yet something 
had to be done. In another minute they 
would be routed from their hiding-place 
and surrounded. Louis turned toward 
Frank, and whispered the order: 

“ We must make a break for the boat. 
Keep close together, and if anybody at- 
tacks us spring upon him together. Don’t 
separate. Now come ! ” 

Directly in front of him one of the men 
was searching in the bushes, and on all 
other sides they appeared equally evident. 
Louis decided to rush between them. He 
sprang up, and darted along swiftly but 


300 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

cautiously. But he had not taken a dozen 
steps before he butted head-first into a 
dark form which seemed to loom directly 
up from the grass in front of him. 

The two came together with such force 
that both recoiled a few feet, and fell 
heavily to the ground. The man who 
had thus been unceremoniously butted 
growled angrily : 

“ What are you doing, Jim ? You tryin’ 
to take me for a stone wall ? ” 

Louis recovered himself instantly, and 
turning swiftly to one side hurried past 
the fallen man ; but as he darted along, 
followed by his three companions, the 
wrecker yelled loudly : 

“ Here they are ! The little — ” 

The rest of the sentence was not fin- 
ished, for the man sprang to his feet and 
made a hasty rush after the boys. In a 
few moments the other wreckers were in 
hot pursuit, and the race through the dark- 
ness became one of intense interest. 


CHAPTER XXVI 


T he darkness of the storm was in 
favor of the boys, for the form of a 
man could not be seen a dozen feet away. 
The crashing and blinding fury of the 
wind and rain also made it difficult for the 
pursuers to track their prey. The noise 
of breaking twigs and rolling stones dis- 
lodged by the boys could not be heard 
above the storm, and the men found little 
encouragement in trying to follow them 
by the sounds of their footsteps. From 
the very first, the boys disappeared entirely 
from the sight of the wrecker who had dis- 
covered them, and he naturally trusted to 
luck that they would keep in a straight 
line. 

But Louis and Frank were born strat- 
egists. They knew the value of dodging 
and of running around in a circle. In a 
few moments they had turned sharply to 
the left, and then, having almost made 


302 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

a complete circle, they withdrew entirely 
from the path of their pursuers. 

“ We ’re safe for the present,” the former 
gasped ; “ but we ’re a long distance from 
our boat.” 

“ They ’ll naturally look for us along the 
water front,” Frank replied, listening to 
the faint echoes of the shouting men. 

“ Yes, and if they happen to strike the 
river near our boat, I ’m afraid we ’re lost.” 

“ They are just as likely to do it as not.” 

“ Yes, but our safest way is to reach the 
boat, while they are shouting and betray- 
ing their position. Later, they will grow 
more wary, and lay in wait for us.” 

“All right. We’d certainly feel better 
to get back to our cavern. They would n’t 
think of following us there.” 

Louis once more led the line of march, 
striking directly for the river front, which 
they reached after much difficulty and a 
few mishaps. By that time the wreckers 
had either passed beyond their range of 
hearing, or they had suddenly changed 
their tactics. 

“ I don’t like this so well,” Louis said 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 303 

nervously. “ If we follow the edge of the 
river, they ’ll surely spring upon us. They 
know we must have our boat anchored 
somewhere. It isn’t safe to go along 
here.” 

“ Then what can we do } ” 

“ Take to the water. The tide is run- 
ning up the river, and it would not be 
such a difficult matter to swim from here 
to the boat. I don’t think it ’s more than 
a few hundred feet farther up the bank.” 

There was a grim, silent shaking of 
heads. This proposition did not meet 
with approval. The boys looked at the 
dark water, and grew more reluctant to 
plunge in it. 

“ Oh, well, for that matter, I ’ll swim it 
alone, and come back for you!” was the 
somewhat irritable reply of Louis. 

To the chorus of dissents to such a 
proposition, Louis added : “I’m not sure 
but it’s the best and only way for us 
to escape. I ’m a good swimmer, and 
would n’t mind the swim ; but you — well, 
I ’ll undertake it alone.” 

“ No, no I We won’t have it I ” 


304 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

But their leader was firm, and, after 
some discussion, he persuaded them to 
remain where they were until he returned 
Stripping himself of coat and shoes, Louis 
stepped into the water, and swam silently 
along the shore. As he disappeared in 
the darkness, the boys suffered greater 
anxiety than at any time during their 
adventure. The storm howled and beat 
about them, but they had nothing to do 
except wait and hope for the best. 

It seemed like a foolhardy feat at first 
thought, and Louis was no more than well 
away from the shore than he began to 
regret his bargain. After all, it would 
have been better to have stayed on land 
and walked along the edge of the river. 
The water was cold and benumbing, and 
the rain beat mercilessly upon his head 
and face, almost blinding him at times. 
It was difficult to distinguish objects on 
the shore, and twice he was deceived by 
logs, which had the outlines of his boat. 
Disappointed both times, he was proceed- 
ing along less hopefully, when suddenly 
he heard a noise near the shore. Almost 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 305 

instantly he caught sight of dark figures 
in the bushes. 

At first the swimmer thought that he had 
been discovered, and he was turning to 
move away, when a voice startled him. 

“ That ’s the boat out by the point there,” 
the man said. 

Louis was immediately aroused, and, 
standing as high out of the water as he 
could, he looked around. A dozen yards 
away he could see the boat, and not far 
from it the four wreckers making their way 
toward it through the bushes. With swift 
and noiseless stroke, Louis swam toward the 
boat. He reached it ahead of the men, and, 
still undiscovered, loosened the rope. Then, 
swimming on his back, and pulling the 
boat by the painter, he made it apparently 
drift out into the current. The men quickly 
exclaimed : 

“ She ’s adrift ! There she goes up 
stream ! ” 

Then, to head her off, they ran along the 
banks, to plunge into the water at a point 
a dozen yards away. But the boat, instead 
of going with the tide, continued to drift, 

20 


3o 6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

strangely, out toward mid-stream, until 
Louis thought that he was safe from ob- 
servation. Then, climbing over the sides, 
he quickly turned the bow about, and rowed 
against the tide. In the gloom, in the oppo- 
site direction, the men continued to look for 
the floating craft, while Louis was rowing it 
back to where he had left his companions. 

They were probably as glad to see him 
back as he was to get there ; but it was 
not until they had crossed the river to 
the opposite bank that he related his ex- 
perience. Five minutes of delay would 
have lost the boat to them forever, and, in 
the end, they would have undoubtedly fallen 
into the hands of the enemy. 

It was long past midnight when they 
finally reached their cavern home, and, 
thoroughly exhausted with their night’s ad- 
ventures, turned in to rest. Before they 
threw themselves down on their bed of 
spruce and pine boughs, Frank said: 

“ After all, it was worth it. We saved 
the ship.” 

“Yes, indeed, it was worth it, ten times 
over,” was the solemn answer from Louis. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 307 

“ If we had n’t saved the ship, a dozen lives 
might have been lost. Then, too, we saw 
the wreckers actually at work, luring the 
ship on the rocks. We have evidence 
against them which would convict them 
in any court.” 

“ But what good is the evidence without 
court, judge, jury, or policemen to arrest 
them.?” 

“ No good now, but some day it may be. 
I don’t think they’ll be left here undis- 
turbed long after my father hears about 
them.” 

“ But we ’re not out of the woods yet, 
and we can’t do much toward bringing 
these men to justice.” 

“ No, indeed. On the contrary, we ’re in 
more danger than ever. The men will 
make a determined effort now to find us. 
They ’ll scour the woods and rocks around 
for us to-morrow, and we must be on the 
lookout all the time.” 

“ I propose we stay in the cave then for 
a few days,” Warren said. “We have fire- 
wood and provisions enough to last half a 
week, if we ’re careful.” 


3o 8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ I second that proposition,” Harold 
added ; “ for I ’m anxious to explore this 
cave, and this will give us just the oppor- 
tunity we need.” 

“ I don’t think there ’ll be much to ex- 
plore,” replied Frank, doubtfully. “ What 
do you say, Louis ? ” 

“ It ’s probably just the same all the way 
through, except that the tide runs swiftly 
back and forth, and, where there is so much 
current, there must be some sort of a lake 
or bay.” 

“You don’t think it runs under the hills 
and comes out to the surface again on the 
other side of the range of mountains ? ” 

“ I don’t know; it may. We ’ll explore 
it anyway to-morrow.” 

With this decision reached, they rolled 
over on their beds of leaves, and were soon 
dreaming peacefully of better and happier 
days. It was late in the morning before 
they finally opened their eyes and took 
their cleansing plunge in the water 
around them. 


CHAPTER XXVII 


T he cavern, through which the arm 
of the river had cut its way, had been 
carved out during many centuries of slow 
work, and its high walls indicated the ero- 
sive effect of ice. In the winter time, the 
tide had brought tons of ice in from the 
sea, and piled it mountain-high, leaving it 
there in great masses, to melt under the 
warmer actions of the summer winds. 
The walls of the cave were scarred and 
cut in places by the action of the ice and 
water until they almost resembled the work 
of human hands. Great pieces of jagged 
rock hung suspended in mid-air, ready to 
be dislodged by the slightest jar; while 
cakes of ice and remnants of old icebergs 
were caught between the crevices of the 
rocks. There were all the relics of great 
titanic battles waged between the ele- 
ments. During the season of storms, 
when the arm of the sea was a great float- 


310 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

ing lake of ice cakes and floes, the grinding 
and crunching of the ice inside of the cave 
must have boomed and echoed like the 
reports of muffled cannonade. To the 
boys, the sights were inspiring, if not 
actually terrifying at times. 

As they pushed their boat along, the 
darkness of the cave increased, until they 
were rowing through a curtain of black- 
ness from which no objects glimmered. 
Even the walls of the cavern faded from 
view, and the water which murmured 
around their boat was invisible. For a 
long time they drifted slowly in with the 
tide, no one venturing to break the silence. 

When Frank finally drew a long sigh^ 
the others started as though some one had 
shouted. “ I don’t like this,” Frank said, 
shuddering. “ It ’s too spooky for me ! ” 

“ Suppose we should get caught in here, 
and could n’t find our way back again ? ” 
suggested Warren, resting on his oars. 

“We could n’t get lost,” answered Louis, 
with an attempt to inspire the others with 
a little confidence. “ The tide runs in and 
out twice a day. All we would have to 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 31 1 

do to return, if we got lost, would be to 
turn our boat adrift. The current would 
do the rest.” 

“ Not if we got caught on some rock, or 
were wrecked.” 

“ No, we might lose our lives anywhere, 
if we got wrecked,” was the answer from 
the bow of the boat. 

“ But I prefer to lose mine in broad day- 
light, where I can see the sun and land- 
scape,” Harold interposed, moving uneasily 
in the stern. 

“So would I,” promptly added Warren. 

Louis suddenly laughed, and said : 
“You’re a brave set of explorers! Why, 
this is n’t anything but an ordinary cave, — 
a pretty big one, but nothing to get fright- 
ened at. You’re as safe here as back in 
our camping-place I ” 

“ We had some light there,” grumbled 
Frank, persistently. 

“ Oh, yes, and so we will ahead, when 
we get far enough.” 

“Do you think so.? In that case I’m 
ready to go on.” 

“ Well, don’t pull us into the wall, or 


312 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

you will wreck us,” sharply cautioned 
Louis, as the three suddenly took courage 
at their leader’s prediction, and sent the 
boat forward with such a spurt that it was 
fended with difficulty from the rocky walls 
of the cavern. 

“ Now move cautiously, and let the tide 
carry us. In half an hour the tide changes, 
and then we can drift back on the current.” 

To this order they readily obeyed, and 
for ten minutes they slowly allowed their 
boat to move, ghost-like, through the cur- 
tain of intense darkness, with the echoes 
of the cavern sounding strangely, like the 
snapping of distant electric sparks, but 
with no flashes of illumination accompany- 
ing them. Every ripple of the water was 
magnified in the echo, and the breathing of 
the four occupants of the boat sometimes 
alarmed them. Their voyage appeared to 
promise little in the way of change or sur- 
prise. There was no way to tell whether 
the roof of the cavern was lowering, or the 
sides approaching each other ahead ; but 
by the sounding echoes they judged that 
they were entering a channel which, in 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 313 

time, would grow too small for their 
boat. 

They were impressed by the idea that 
their underground river found its source 
somewhere deep in the bowels of the earth, 
and that farther exploration of it w’ould 
give them little pleasure. Even Louis, 
who was always eager to go to the very 
roots of a matter, and make an exploration 
thorough and complete, felt his patience 
deserting him, and he glanced ahead anx- 
iously and restlessly. 

“ Come, Louis, we Ve had enough,” ven- 
tured Frank, in another remonstrance. 
“You’ve played Columbus long enough, 
and your crew is about ready to make 
you a prisoner, if you don’t turn around. 
We ’re getting afraid of this terrible dark- 
ness. I feel ” — 

“ Then, if I ’m to be treated like Colum- 
bus, let me ask for five minutes longer. 
Then I’ll—” 

When he stopped and peered forward, 
he added, in a changed voice : “ There ’s 
light ahead ! See it } ” 

“ Come now, that was one of Columbus’s 


314 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

tricks. Don’t be too literal in playing the 
part of the admiral! ” 

“ I ’m serious, Frank. There ’s light 
ahead I ” 

“ Land ahead ?” mockingly replied Frank. 
“ And floating plants and seaweed. Cheer 
up, sailors I We ’ll reach the new continent 
yet I ” 

“ I do see light,” Warren interrupted. 
“ Look around, Frank.” 

When all four gazed over the bow of 
the boat, they were conscious, in time, of 
seeing dimly a slight lifting of the shadows 
around. It was so uncertain and obscure, 
however, that it took them some time to be 
convinced of its reality. They closed and 
opened their eyes. The light — dim, gray, 
and misty — was still there. 

“ It is certainly getting lighter,” Frank 
acknowledged. “ But where does it come 
from ? ” 

“ I don’t know ; we ’ll soon find out.” 

There was no farther need to urge them 
forward. They plied their oars, and swiftly 
pushed their craft along. The light in- 
creased slowly, filling the cave so that in a 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 315 

short time they could see the sides of the 
rocks, but not the roof. An occasional 
sparkle and glimmer of the water around 
them showed that they were certainly sail- 
ing toward a brighter and lighter place. 

“ Another Columbus has come to his 
own,” Frank remarked finally. “ All credit 
is due to you, Louis. Now can’t you find 
land and some New-World Indians 

Louis paid no attention to this chaffing. 
His sharp eyes had been peering straight 
ahead, riveted upon some strange outlines 
of rocks, trees, or misty vapor rising from 
the water. For some time he could make 
nothing of it. He thought of peculiar 
atmospheric phenomena which often de- 
ceived the eyes of the best seaman. He 
closed them twice, and then renewed his 
observations. Still the lines, which seemed 
to take form and shape, were there. Turn- 
ing to the others in the boat, he asked : 

“Do you see anything ahead — any- 
thing that looks like — well, I don’t know 
what — but like shadowy outlines of — ” 
“Yes, I see peculiar lines,” Warren an- 
swered hastily. “ They seem like — like — ” 


3i 6 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“ What ? ” asked Louis, quickly. “ What 
do they seem like ? ” 

“Why — why — like the lines of a — ship.” 

“That’s what I thought, but I didn’t 
dare trust my eyes.” 

Frank and Harold jumped from their 
seats. Then all four looked through the 
misty light. For some moments they were 
silent. Their eyes were gazing upon a 
queer picture. As the boat drifted along, 
the outlines of a ghostly ship appeared. 
If an optical illusion, it was perfect. There 
were the masts and rigging, the furled sails 
and spars, the dark hull and sharp prow, 
all except some parts which had been 
broken by a storm. It was a wrecked 
ship, rising slowly out of the dim light, — a 
ship that was coated with ice, and almost 
white in its shape and form. 

“ This is wonderful ! ” Frank exclaimed. 
“ Is it an illusion, or a reality ? ” 

Instinctively the boys crowded closer to- 
gether. There was something so ghost- 
like and uncanny in the sight that they 
looked to each other for courage. They 
had dared almost any danger with brave 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 317 

and fearless hearts ; but the sight of this 
unparalleled vision in the dark cavern 
unnerved them. 

“ Suppose we go back, Louis,” Harold 
whispered, thoroughly alarmed at the 
sight. “ I think it ’s time we reached 
daylight once more. I’m beginning to 
see visions.” 

“No, no, it’s no vision,” hastily re- 
sponded Louis. “ That is a ship, a real 
ship ! ” 

“What, here in this cave! How can 
that be.?” 

“ I don’t know how it can be, but it ’s a 
ship I ” 

This confident assertion brought men- 
tal relief to the frightened boys, and they 
pulled once more at their oars. The tide 
had nearly ceased to flow by this time, and 
it was almost on the ebb. Left to itself, 
the boat remained almost stationary on 
the water. They had reached a place by 
this time that was flooded with more light 
than any part of the cave. A few more 
strokes of the oars carried them into a 
more commanding position, where the 


3i 8 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

queer outlines of the ship appeared less 
dusky and unreal. 

“ Yes, it is a ship, a wrecked ship,” 
Louis added a little later, with even more 
confidence in his voice. 

“ But how could it have been carried in 
here ? ” persisted Frank. 

“ By the tide, I suppose.” 

This explanation seemed satisfactory. 
But the nearer they approached the ship, 
the queerer it appeared. It was only when 
they were within a few yards of it that the 
mystery of the ghostly reflection of spars 
and rigging was explained. The ship was 
veritably enclosed in a sheath of ice. The 
hull itself was resting in a huge cake of 
ice, and the spars and masts were coated 
with it. 

“ It looks as if she had been frozen up 
in an iceberg ! ” exclaimed Harold, as he 
watched the strange appearance of the 
craft. 

Louis started visibly at this remark, and 
replied : “ Pull around to the stern, and 
see if we can read her name ! ” 

Warren, standing by his side, asked: 









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The Mysterious Beacon Light 319 

“ You don’t think now, Louis, that — that 
it ’s the Nancy Brow 7 i ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” huskily replied Louis. 
“ But all ships would look alike down here. 
Row around, and we ’ll see.” 

But when they reached the stern of 
the ship, they found a ton of ice hang- 
ing over the stern, so that any attempt 
to read the name was soon abandoned. 
They pulled the boat up alongside of 
the wrecked ship, until they could touch 
her side. 

“ She ’s a wooden ship like the Nancy',' 
Louis said, “ and she looks like her. But 
I don’t say that it is she.” 

“ Would n’t it be great if it was ” Frank 
said. “ Our voyage would be worth while, 
after all.” 

“ We ’ll soon find out.” 

Leading the way up the side of the 
ship, Louis soon stood on the ice-coated 
deck. There all was confusion and wreck- 
age. The ship had met with rough hand- 
ling, and on all sides were evidences of 
hasty abandonment and violent struggling 
with the elements. The ice had fallen 


320 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

over on the decks, and had frozen in 
irregular masses around. 

Part of the deck was cleared away, as 
if the crew had sought to extricate the 
ship from the ice, and Louis was able to 
slip and slide along until he reached the 
door of the cabin. All was cold, icy, and 
slimy to the touch. The door refused to 
move on its hinges. The iron work was 
rusty and eaten away by corrosion. With 
some difficulty they battered down the 
door, and once inside, a foul odor of musty, 
dead meat and vegetables greeted their 
nostrils. But when the outside air had 
been allowed to circulate around a little, 
the boys were able to endure the odor. 

Louis was the first to cross the cabin 
threshold. He strode straight to the desk 
where the log-book should be kept. It 
was not there. Then he turned to the 
captain’s private locker. It was fastened 
down, and the rusty lock was more diffi- 
cult to break than the hinges of the door. 
At his feet, however, he discovered a half- 
expanded life-preserver. He picked it up 
eagerly and turned it over. The name 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 321 

on the other side had not been obliterated. 
With a sudden exclamation of delight, he 
dropped the life-preserver. 

“ It ’s the Nancy Brown ! ” he shouted. 
“ Read the name ! It ’s father’s long-lost 
ship ! ” 


CHAPTER XXVIII 


T he announcement of their discovery 
sent a thrill of pleasure and exhilara- 
tion through the boys, and with one accord 
they let out a yell of delight which echoed 
so thunderously through the rocky cavern 
that they were at once startled and fright- 
ened by the noise. 

“ Never mind ! ” exclaimed Frank. “ We 
can stand one good shout! I don’t care 
if the wreckers do discover us.” 

“Yes, we do,” Louis answered earnestly. 
“ They don’t know of the Nancy s pre- 
sence here, and we don’t want them to 
find her.” 

“ How could she have crawled in here 
without their discovering her } ” 

“ Easy enough 1 She ’s come in with 
the tide at night-time, or she was caught 
here before those fellows landed on this 
coast.” 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 323 

“ But if the tide brought her in, why 
does n’t it take her out again ? ” persisted 
Frank. 

“ That ’s also easy to explain. She ’s 
wedged in here on the rocks. I ’m going 
to find out, anyway.”^ 

Louis was at home on board of one of 
his father’s ships, and the Nancy Brow7i 
had been his favorite. He knew every 
corner of the vessel, and almost every 
rope and spar. He quickly hunted 
through the cabin and sailors’ quarters, 
finding everything just as the men had left 
them before their hasty abandonment of 
the schooner. Below decks, the cargo of 
sealskins, whale oil, and dried fish were a 
little musty, but not spoiled. The ship had 
spent two years in the grip of an iceberg, 
and during all that time she had been 
frozen stiff, with nearly everything aboard 
preserved from decay by the ice. She 
was a veritable storage warehouse with 
her goods held in cold storage for indefi- 
nite use. After a hasty inventory, Louis 
announced : 

“ Nearly everything is safe and sound. 


324 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

We Ve practically saved everything, the 
cargo as well as the ship. There ’s 
nothing very perishable aboard, and what 
has decayed we can throw overboard, and 
then clean ship.” 

“ That means then we Ve saved thou- 
sands of dollars to your father,” Frank 
said slowly and seriously. 

“ Yes, tens of thousands,” was Louis’s 
hearty reply. “ If we can once float her, and 
get her out of the grasp of these wreck- 
ers, and then find a ship to pick us up, 
we shall be in luck. And we must 
do it ! ” 

“ Yes, if it is possible. But are you sure 
we can float her ? ” 

“ That is what I ’m going to find out 
about now. I ’m going to sound the 
water down here, and even dive down.” 

The Nancy was resting easily on a rock, 
with her bow forced upon it so that she 
could not budge, although each tide swung 
her stern around, and threatened to dis- 
lodge her. Louis, after a long examina- 
tion of the water underneath, made this 
out to his satisfaction. He dove down 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 325 

under the dark water, and felt around 
under the keel of the boat. 

“ Her bow is about five feet on the 
rock,” he explained; “ but the hull itself is 
not damaged. The rock is a smooth one, 
and there have been no waves to wrench 
the Nancy around. She ’s as strong and 
intact as ever, except for her rigging.” 

“ Then we can’t get her off the rock 
without steam power or a tug ? ” queried 
Harold. 

“ Yes, we can lighten her bow by 
carrying the cargo toward the stern. I 
think, then, a good flood tide will carry 
her off.” 

What ! We can then actually sail on 
her out of this cave ? ” 

“ I hope so, and believe so,” solemnly 
answered Louis. “ But it means many 
days of hard work. We must first find 
axes and chop away this ice. It ’s clung 
to her on all sides, and we shall find 
plenty of hard work in clearing her. 
Then we must patch up the rigging 
and spars. That will take less time, for 
we can sail without everything first class. 


326 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Then we must shift the cargo toward the 
stern, to lighten the bow. We must live 
and sleep on her for a week or two, work- 
ing and eating here, until we ’re ready to 
sail.” 

“ But who will get food for us ? Man 
cannot live without eating, Louis,” re- 
sponded Frank. 

“ True, but he can live on a cargo of 
dried and salted fish, hard-tack, stale bread, 
pork, and — why, Frank, we have grub 
enough aboard to last us six months. 
All we ’ll have to do is to thaw it out. 
The ice-box is stocked full. All we 
need is water, and we know where to get 
that. Come, now, I ’m anxious to begin 
at once.” 

So were the others. The prospect of 
saving the Nancy, and floating her on 
the sea once more, to escape from the 
wreckers, inspired them to great effort. 
With their axes, which they found in the 
cabin, they proceeded to chop away the 
ice, undermining it so that it would fall in 
great masses into the water. The ice was 
old and brittle. Some of it had drifted 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 327 

into the cavern with the Nancy, and it had 
never had an opportunity to melt. This 
was easily cut away. 

Before night the boys had freed the bow 
of the ship of the ice, and, when the tide 
went out and flowed in again, Louis ex- 
claimed : 

“ Why, I believe the ice alone will lighten 
her nearly enough to float her! Here, 
we ’ll have to throw an anchor overboard, 
or we ’ll be drifting back to the sea before 
we ’re ready to go.” 

When the tide reached its flood, the 
Nancy did shift and swing around rest- 
lessly ; but she was not quite free from her 
strange mooring. Louis made another 
examination, and reported that the bow 
was resting very lightly on the rock, barely 
sufflcient to hold her. 

“ Six inches more of water would float 
her free,” he added. “ What we need now, 
is to shift the cargo a little, and we shall 
be ready to start.” 

With two anchors thrown over the stern, 
the Nancy was securely held from any 
sudden lurch from her position, and the 


328 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

boys spent their night in her cabin, sleep- 
ing, for the first time in many days, on 
beds of luxury. There was no fear of dis- 
covery in their subterranean home, and 
they slept peacefully and soundly. 

They were up bright and early the fol- 
lowing morning. Louis had prepared for 
them a breakfast of dried fish, salt pork, 
hard-tack, and some fresh game they had 
left from the preceding day s hunt. This 
was washed down with some strong coffee 
which they found in the ship, and then 
they were ready for another hard day’s 
work. 

There was no shirking their work that 
day. Every one labored like a beaver. 
The hope of freeing the Nancy from her 
berth as soon as possible urged them on. 
The ice fell, with heavy and continuous 
splashes, into the sea. Below the water 
line most of the ice had been melted by the 
warmer current of salt water from the sea, 
but above that the ice clung in heavy 
masses to the ship. It took two good days 
of work to finish the ice. By that time 
the Nancy stood a foot higher in the water. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 329 

Louis was more than satisfied with his 
work. 

“ It won’t take us half a day to lighten 
her bow now so she will float,” he said 
confidently. “We’ll fix up the sails and 
riggings first, and leave the shifting of the 
cargo to the last.” 

This was not so easy a matter as cut- 
ting away the ice, for none of the boys 
save Louis understood the art of splicing 
rigging and mending sails. Their first 
attempts were bungling and unsatisfac- 
tory. By degrees, however, they learned 
the work under the careful directions of 
their leader. 

“We’ll qualify as good sailors yet,” 
Frank remarked, on the third day, after 
they had finished a specially arduous task 
of splicing a broken line. “ Then we ’ll 
demand full wages from Louis, or mutiny 
or go on strike.” 

“ No, we ’ll maroon him on some island, 
and run away with the Nancy Brown'' in- 
terposed Warren. 

“We’ll run up the Jolly Roger, and 
play Captain Kidd,” Harold added. “ I ’ve 


330 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

always longed to play pirate in dead 
earnest.” 

“ Some day you ’ll get enough of play- 
ing it in earnest,” Louis made answer, “for 
these wreckers on the beach are no better 
than out-and-out pirates.” 

“ You think they would resort to murder, 
then ? ” 

“To take this ship from us, they ’d do 
every one of us, rather than let us escape 
with it.” 

“ Then how are we to get away ? ” asked 
Warren, his face paling a trifle. 

“We’re to steal away under the cover 
of darkness, and then, if discovered, we ’re 
to put up a stiff fight. Father always car- 
ried firearms. I ’m going to make a hunt 
for them now.” 

The four descended to the cabin to ex- 
plore its contents. They had been so busy 
in clearing their ship that they had no 
more than cursorily examined the cabin. 
In overhauling the different articles stowed 
away in lockers and racks on the sides of 
the small room, Louis was soon delighted 
to find a brace of navy pistols. These 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 331 

were loaded, and ready for an emergency. 
The locks were so rusty, however, that it 
was necessary to take them apart and clean 
them. The cartridges appeared to be in- 
tact, for one of them exploded when the 
hammer was brought down on it. 

“ Now we ’re ready for the wreckers ! ” 
Frank exclaimed, flourishing one of the 
weapons over his head. “ I ’m good for 
two of them, and Louis should be able to 
clip the other two.” 

“ Oh, we ’re not going into the kill- 
ing business,” Louis answered with a 
grim smile. “ These are to be used only 
as a last emergency, and then only to 
wound. I ’m not in the mood to kill any- 
body.” 

“ No, we know how tender-hearted you 
are, Louis,” Frank replied, “ But why do 
you blacken my character with such insin- 
uations? You’d think I was an out-and- 
out murderer of the fiercest type ! ” 

“Oh, no, we wouldn’t, Frank,” Warren 
said cheerfully. “You haven’t the nerve 
for that. We can see that by the way you 
handle that pistol.” 


332 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

“We should have a little target prac- 
tice,” Frank added, without noticing this 
remark. “ I ’d like to try my skill against 
some of you.” 

“ What ! and bring the wreckers here 
to capture the Nancy when we ’re off 
guard ? ” 

“ They could n’t hear the noise way back 
here in the cave!” 

“ I don’t know,” Louis responded, with 
a shake of the head. “ I ’m of the opinion 
we ’re nearer the surface than you think. 
This light back of us comes from an open- 
ing on the opposite side. We might be 
within a few hundred feet of it.” 

“ Then why not go ahead and explore 
it?” 

“ No,” protested Warren. “We ’ve had 
enough of the cave and this whole coast. 
I want to get away now. Let’s put all 
of our time in clearing the boat.” 

“ I ’m of the same mind, Warren. 
We’ve found all we need in this cave. 
Now let us get away. How long will it 
take us to get ready, Louis ? ” 

Harold looked up questioningly, and 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 333 

waited for the reply with no little eager- 
ness. 

“ If we work hard, I think in two days 
we should be able to go. The tide will suit 
our purpose night after next. It should 
turn to run out about nine o’clock. There 
is no moon then until nearly three in the 
morning. That will give us six hours to 
pass out of the cave, and down the river 
to the ocean.” 

“ Shall we start for the ocean in the 
dark ? ” asked Harold. 

“ Yes ; but when we clear the rocks near 
the entrance, I shall anchor, and wait until 
morning. We can fix our sails out there, 
and try how she sails. We will be two or 
three miles from shore, and if the wreck- 
ers attempt to reach us, we will have ample 
time to sail away. In the afternoon we 
can sail down the coast until there is no 
danger of the wreckers following us.” 

“ But what shall we do if a storm comes 
up.^*” 

“ That ’s our only danger. We may be 
wrecked on the coast. But we must take 
that chance. We must hope that no 


334 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

storm will strike us until we can meet an- 
other ship. However, an ordinary storm 
will not hurt us. I think we can manage 
to run before it with bare poles, and hold 
our own.” 

“ Well, that is better than staying here. 
I ’m tired of this inhospitable coast.” 

“ So am I ! ” they all answered in 
chorus. 


CHAPTER XXIX 


T he next two days were busy ones for 
the boys. Having set a time for 
their departure from the cave, they strained 
every nerve and muscle to be ready for 
the final experiment. To their delight, 
Louis’s prediction proved true concerning 
the shifting of the cargo to lighten the 
bow of the boat. The Nancy s nose sud- 
denly swung free on the flood tide of the 
second day, and, when the current started 
to carry her down stream, the boys had to 
secure her with ropes and anchors. Louis 
let the tide swing her bow around so that 
she pointed seaward, and in this position 
she was anchored for the eventful moment. 

Throughout all that last day they worked 
with feverish and nervous haste. Every- 
thing about the decks and rigging was put 
in fine shape, and there seemed nothing 
else for the boys to do. They ate their 
early supper, and then waited for the tide 


336 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

to change. The flood was later than ex- 
pected, and time passed never so slowly. 
Finally, when the Nancy began to tug at 
her chains, the boys were eager to weigh 
anchor. 

“ No, not yet,” Louis cautioned. “ We 
want the tide to run with full force before 
we start. It will be a difficult thing to 
keep her in the middle of the stream at 
the best. I must steer by guess rather 
than by sight. Besides, we need a drag 
to keep her bow ahead. If she ever drifts 
sideways in this narrow place, she ’ll go 
on the rocks for good. If she got wedged 
in one of the narrow places here, it would 
be all up with the Nancy!' 

“ How are you going to keep her 
straight .f*” Frank asked. 

“ I have a drag ready for her.” 

The boys made a sort of rude raft of 
old pieces of timber, found in the hold 
and on deck. This was attached to a 
rope over the stern. Then Louis sunk a 
small rock in the water, tied by a rope to 
one end of the raft. The rock dragged in 
the water, but did not quite reach bottom. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 337 

“ That will keep us from drifting as fast 
as the tide,” Louis explained ; “ but it will 
also keep us from drifting sideways. Now 
with that and the rudder, I shall be able to 
steer all right, if the current runs straight 
If it makes any sharp turn, I ’ll probably 
run the bow on the rocks.” 

It was an anxious moment when finally 
Louis, taking command of the ship, gave 
orders to hoist anchor. Each boy had his 
special duties to perform, and he was to 
respond promptly to the order of their cap- 
tain. They had learned the necessity of 
obedience, and not one was prepared to 
disobey orders even for an instant. It 
was a disciplined crew which stood ready 
to navigate the Nancy Brown out of her 
strange harbor to the sea. 

“ All ready now ! ” shouted Louis. 
“ Weigh anchor ! Make haste ! ” 

Simultaneously the boys labored at the 
windlass, and the two anchors were at 
length pulled from the rocky bottom. Al- 
most instantly the tide caught the Nancy 
and carried her forward. Then she stopped 
and jerked. She brought up suddenly with 

22 


338 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

a shiver ; but it was only the tightening of 
the rope connecting her with the drag be- 
hind. Then, with the stern pulled toward 
the drag, the bow kept pointing straight 
down stream. All was darkness around, 
and no mariner could penetrate the gloom 
to steer the ship through the cave. Louis 
made no pretence of steering. The cur- 
rent would have to clear them of the 
rocks, or they would run aground again. 
Once outside of the cave, he could cast 
aside his drag, and steer for the open sea. 

Slowly, but surely, they floated along 
through the great underground cavern. 
The rippling of the water was the only 
sound that greeted their ears. Every 
minute they expected to hear a grating 
noise under their boat, or a crash which 
would splinter their bow to pieces. 

But it did not come, and they were ready 
to congratulate themselves on their suc- 
cess, when suddenly there was a sharp 
creak and a crash which made them 
jump in terror. Every one turned white 
with fear and disappointment. Pieces of 
wood and ropes were flung down at their 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 339 

feet, narrowly missing their heads. Louis, 
after a moment s pause, said : 

“ Never mind ! It was only the topmast 
that hit the roof of the cavern. We ’re not 
badly injured yet.” 

This announcement brought a sense of 
relief to them, and they once more watched 
and waited. It seemed an hour before a 
cool breath of fresh air blew upon their 
brows. Then, looking around, they saw the 
shadow of trees and mountains. Looking 
overhead, they saw millions of stars shining. 

“ Why, we ’re out of the cavern ! ” ex- 
claimed Warren, in wonder. 

“ Of course we are,” Louis answered. 
“We’re heading straight for the sea on 
the river. You can now say good-bye to 
your old camping-place.” 

“ Well, it was n’t such a bad place, after 
all.” 

“No, I shall always remember it. Some 
day I ’d like to return and see it again. 
That old cave has a fascination for me.” 

The others laughed, more from an ex- 
cess of joy than from a sense of apprecia- 
tion of Harold’s words. They were at last 


340 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

free from their prison, and were floating 
on a ship destined to some civilized port. 
Louis had little difficulty in steering the 
ship out beyond the line of rocks to where 
the low swells of the ocean made the Nancy 
bob up and down with graceful motion. 
The moon rose when they were finally 
ready to cast anchor, and, by means of its 
light, the boys could study their situation 
to better advantage. 

“ We must divide our forces into four 
watches,” Louis said. “ I ’ll take the first 
watch, and then turn in to let Frank try it.” 

“ What danger is there out here } ” 
asked Frank. 

“ Danger from storms, wind, and the 
wreckers,” was the answer. “ Besides, a 
ship always has a watch. It never sleeps, 
and we may as well begin right.” 

Thoroughly tired with their work and 
lack of sleep, the other three were soon 
wrapped in deep slumber. Louis watched 
the shore carefully, dreading lest the 
wreckers may have caught sight of the 
Nancy, and were preparing to creep upon 
it in the darkness. 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 341 

But morning dawned with no sign of 
the wreckers. The others were aroused 
from their slumber, and the crew, after 
eating their breakfast, proceeded to rem- 
edy the damage done to the topmast. 
This had been broken off near the end, 
and most of the morning was spent in 
clearing away the wreckage. 

Up to this time they had seen no signs 
of life on shore, but suddenly, on the 
outcoming tide, they were startled to see 
a long raft of logs floating. It was pro- 
pelled by four men, and with long sweeps 
they managed to make good time. They 
were a mile from the shore before any one 
discovered their presence. 

“Here come the wreckers!” shouted 
Harold, in alarm. 

The others stopped in their work. After 
the first surprise, Frank said: “Yes, but 
they can never catch us. Our sails will 
carry us beyond their reach.” 

“ But we have no wind, Frank,” replied 
Louis, with a choking voice. 

The men had chosen the moment of 
attack well. There was a dead calm, and 


342 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

the men on the home-made raft were 
drawing rapidly upon them. Louis saw 
their progress with dismay. Finally, when 
they were within half a mile of the 
schooner, he said : 

“ Frank, get the pistols. It is fight or 
give in ; we can’t escape. We must not 
let them board us ; if they do, we ’re lost.” 

Frank brought up the loaded pistols. 
Louis took one, and said : 

“ Don’t shoot until I give the word. I 
shall warn them off first. If they find we 
have firearms, they may withdraw until 
dark. Then a breeze may spring up. Oh, 
for a good wind ! ” 

The wreckers rowed swiftly toward 
them until within hailing distance. Then 
Louis, pistol in hand, leaned over the 
railing, and shouted : “ Halt there ! If 

you come closer, I ’ll shoot.” 

He waved the big navy pistol over his 
head, but the men apparently took it for 
a bluff. They continued to row toward 
the schooner. Louis raised his pistol, 
and took deliberate aim at the water, just 
ahead of the approaching raft. There 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 343 

was a sharp report, and the bullet splashed 
in the water so close to the raft that one 
of the wreckers caught the spray from it. 
This brought them to a sudden pause. 
It was not a bluff on the part of the boys, 
and the men were undecided what to do. 
They withdrew some distance, and held 
a long consultation. They were appar- 
ently trying to formulate some other 
method of attack. 

“ I don’t think they ’ll attempt to board 
us until dark,” Louis said. “ Then, if we 
don’t get any wind, we ’re in a trap.” 

The morning was one of unusual calm. 
No wind sprang up to encourage the 
boys. Instead, the few gentle zephyrs 
appeared to die out completely. By noon 
the sun was hot and bright, and the sur- 
face of the sea was like a pool of melted 
glass. The tide changed, and rushed up 
the coast again, and surged past the 
Nancy into the river. In order to keep 
her from floating back to her former berth, 
the boys had to throw two anchors over. 
The men on the raft had to do the same, 
and thus the afternoon watch began. 


344 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Early in the afternoon a breeze seemed 
to spring up at sea, and the water was 
dark and rippling beyond a certain line 
of vision ; but before it reached the Nancy, 
it died down to light puffs. It was an 
ocean breeze, blowing directly toward the 
shore, which, with the in-flowing tide, 
tugged hard to shove the Nancy on the 
rocky coast. If the wind had veered 
around, and blown from the shore, the 
boys would have had a chance to escape. 

“ But we can’t beat against this tide 
with such a puffy, light wind,” Louis 
explained. “ We would go on the rocks 
in half an hour. But when the tide 
changes again, an off-shore breeze may 
spring up.” 

All the afternoon there was apparently 
no change. The wind blew in fitful puffs 
from the ocean, dying out as it reached 
the coast. The Na^zcy tugged away at 
her chains, and the four men on the raft 
watched and waited for their prey. 

Uneasily the boys watched the sun, 
sinking in the west. Everything seemed 
to work against them. To lose all at this 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 345 

last moment was a crushing thought. 
With escape so close at hand, it was 
doubly cruel to miss it. 

But they were not prepared to yield 
without a fight. Both Frank and Louis 
were determined to shoot dead the first 
man who should step on the vessel’s deck. 
They held their pistols in hand all day, 
scarcely willing to lay them down long 
enough to eat and drink. 

It was late in the afternoon when the 
men on the raft began to show some un- 
easiness, as if preparing to make another 
attack. For some time the boys watched 
them closely, waiting for the first move- 
ment on their part. Presently Louis 
exclaimed : “ Look ! That explains their 
actions ! There ’s a sail, and they ’ve 
caught sight of it.” 

The boys looked in the opposite quarter, 
and immediately gave a shout of delight. 
There was a large vessel bearing down 
upon them. The wind outside was strong 
enough to bring the schooner along at 
a good pace, and within half an hour 
she stood close to the shore. When 


346 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

she reached the zone of light winds, she 
stopped, and a boat was lowered. 

“ They ’re sending a boat out to help 
us ! ” shouted Frank. 

“ Yes, but why don’t the wreckers run? 
They ’ll get caught ! ” 

“ They have some game up their sleeve,” 
suggested Louis. 

As if to verify this prediction, the men 
picked up their oars and rowed their raft 
out to meet the approaching boat. They 
kept beyond pistol-range of the Nancy, 
making a wide circle to avoid her. 

“ They ’re going to tell some wild yarn 
about us,” Louis said; “and then they will 
board the Nancy with the sailors from 
this schooner.” 

The queer raft with the wreckers on it, 
and the long boat from the schooner, met 
a mile away from the Nancy, and the two 
crews appeared to be in consultation for 
some time. Finally the men from the 
raft were taken aboard of the long boat, 
and this was rowed rapidly toward the 
Nancy. 

“ They ’ve won over the sympathy of 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 347 

the sailors,” Louis said, with an annoyed 
expression on his face. “ If the sailors 
believe their lies, we may be imprisoned.” 

“ What can they say about us ? ” 

“ Oh, tell them we stole their boat from 
them, or mutinied and put them ashore 
and left them.” 

The approaching boat came within hail- 
ing distance, and the man in the stern 
rose from his seat and shouted: 

“Ahoy there! We wish to come 
aboard I ” 

“ All right!” shouted Louis. “You or 
any of your sailors are welcome, but none 
of those fellows you picked up can land 
on this craft.” 

“ What schooner is that, any way ? ” 

Louis was about to reply, when he sud- 
denly flung up his hands, and said : 
“ Hurrah, it ’s the Northern Star! What 
a fool I was not to recognize her ! Look, 
Frank ! Look ! And that is Mate Ned ! ” 

Then, leaning far over the side, he 
shouted : 

“ Hello, Ned ! Hello, Mate Ned ! Don’t 
you know me I ’m Louis Pendleton — 


348 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

Captain Pendleton’s son. How ’s father ? 
Is he well ? " 

Mate Ned stood in the stern of his craft, 
and gasped. He could not frame words 
to answer, and Louis continued gleefully: 

“We Ve got the Nancy Brown ! We ’re 
on her now, and we ’re taking her home ! ” 

Then suddenly, as one of the wreckers 
rose from his seat in the boat, he shouted : 
“ Look out for those men ! Don’t let 
them escape ! They ’re wreckers ! Crack 
them over the head if they try to jump 
overboard ! ” 

The wreckers, upon finding that their 
game was up, tried to escape by jumping 
into the sea ; but the sailors from the 
Northern Star were too quick for them. 
A short struggle followed in the long boat. 
The wreckers fought hard for their liberty, 
but they were soon overpowered. 

The conflict in the boat was noticed 
from the deck of the Northern Star^ and 
a second boat was quickly launched. This 
came dancing over the sea at a lively rate, 
and it reached the Nancy s side almost as 
soon as the first boat. In the stern of the 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 349 

second one was Captain Pendleton. Louis, 
upon seeing him, shouted : 

“ Here we are, father, all safe ! And I Ve 
brought back the Nancy! She ’s all right ! ” 

Mate Ned climbed to the deck of the 
Nancy, and grasped the hands of the boys, 
giving them a hearty welcome, and asking 
a dozen questions about their adventures. 
A few moments later. Captain Pendleton 
climbed up from his boat, and he and 
Louis were locked into each other’s arms. 

“ I never expected to see you again,” 
the captain said in a trembling voice. 
“We had given you up for lost. It seems 
miraculous ! ” 

“You ^11 think so after we’ve told you 
our story,” Louis answered. 

“ And the Nancy Brown ! Where did 
you pick her up ? ” 

“ Oh, that ’s a part of the story,” re- 
sponded Louis. “You must wait until we 
get to that.” 

“ Yes, yes, I can wait now for anything,” 
Captain Pendleton replied, with a look of 
happiness on his face. 


CHAPTER XXX 


W HEN the four wreckers were trans- 
ferred to the deck of the Nancy^ 
securely handcuffed and bound with ropes, 
Louis and his companions related the 
story of their troubles with them, and 
wound up by describing the false beacon 
light on the promontory. The wreckers 
had little to say, and after Captain Pen- 
dleton and some of his sailors had visited 
the scene of the wrecked light, it was de- 
cided to carry the men away to some port 
to turn them over to the British author- 
ities. Besides the rude lighthouse which 
the boys had wrecked, the men had a 
comfortably stored place in a cave where 
they lived. This was found stocked with 
sufficient incriminating evidences of their 
guilty trade. There were articles taken 
from several sealing vessels which had 
been lost in the northern seas. After re- 
covering everything of value in the cave, 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 351 

Captain Pendleton set sail for the harbor 
of Nain. 

It required only a few days’ work on 
the part of the sailors from the Northern 
Star to rig up the Nancy Brown so that 
she could sail south with her sister ship. 
The two were nearly of the same size 
and capacity, and as they finally weighed 
anchor and started on their journey, no 
prouder captain ever paced a deck than 
their owner. Captain Pendleton took 
charge of the Northern Star, and Louis, 
with Mate Ned as an adviser, sailed the 
Nancy, By dividing the crew of the two 
schooners, each one had enough men 
to handle the ship in ordinary weather. 
They hurried south as rapidly as weather 
conditions would permit. They touched 
at Nain just long enough to turn the 
wreckers over to the civil authorities, and 
then, with all sails set, they renewed their 
long trip. 

A month later, they sailed into the har- 
bor of Boston to unload a part of their 
cargo. Here the boys were given an 
opportunity to return to their separate 


352 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

homes ; but so strongly attached had they 
become to the ship they had found in the 
Labrador cave that they wished to leave 
her only at the end of her cruise. It was 
several days later when they sailed into 
New Bedford harbor. Great was the 
interest and astonishment among the in- 
habitants when the Nancy Brown, accom- 
panied by the Northern Star, came into 
harbor. She was considerably the worse 
for rough usage, and lack of paint and 
new rigging; but otherwise she appeared 
equally trim and stanch as her sister 
ship. 

Captain Pendleton was not slow in 
spreading abroad the story of the miracu- 
lous recovery of the Nancy, Full credit 
was given to the boys, and they enjoyed a 
temporary popularity among the inhabi- 
tants of New Bedford that nearly de- 
moralized them. They were requested 
repeatedly, on all sides, to relate more 
particularly their experiences in the great 
Labrador cave, and in time the repetition 
grew a trifle monotonous. 

“ I ’m tired of being a hero,” Frank 


The Mysterious Beacon Light 353 

finally declared. “ It ’s a bigger nuisance 
than I thought.’' 

“ But this is nothing to what it will be 
next winter, when you get back to Shef- 
field,” Louis responded. “ Then every 
boy will demand the particulars every 
night.” 

“ In that case, I propose we make Frank 
spokesman for the crowd,” Warren sug- 
gested. “We ’ll turn every inquirer over 
to him.” 

“ Yes, he ’s the best story-teller of the 
crowd, and he should have a chance to 
cultivate his gifts,” Harold added. 

Frank tried to look disgusted; but he 
knew that there would be others anxious 
to help him relate their strange adven- 
tures in the great Arctic sea and ice cav- 
erns. Their trip and miraculous rescue 
was, after all, a mutual affair, and they 
would enjoy talking and discussing the 
different points of it for months and 
years to come. 

Before they returned to school, there 
was handed to each of them ;a check for a 
substantial sum, from Captain Pendleton, 
23 


354 The Mysterious Beacon Light 

which, in rather archaic sea terms, it was 
explained to them, represented salvage 
money for rescuing the Nancy Brown 
from her cavern. 

“We can’t accept it, Louis,” they pro- 
tested in one voice. 

“ But you must,” Louis responded. 
“ Father would feel hurt if you did n’t. 
We each have a fourth interest in it.” 

“ Then we must put the money to- 
gether and go off on another vacation trip 
next year,” Warren suggested. 

“Agreed! We’ll throw our fortunes 
in again next summer,” was the prompt 
response from all. 

And as they returned to their studies, 
they dreamed of the past, and looked for- 
ward with healthy-minded anticipation to 
the future, building, it may be, air castles 
that were never to be realized. But 
there was joy in it and no harm. 





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